Comments on: “She may need all the help she can get.”

By: Logical Deducer

Logical Deducer — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 23:06:36 +0000

1) He is a grandfather
2) He wrote this in 1987 for use in 2010 (23 years time)
3) His wife is dead.
4) Women have longer life expectancies than men, especially in couples.

Deduction: He expected to be (and likely is) dead by the time this letter was relevant.

By: fish

fish — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:31:12 +0000

For those who are questioning his picking her school in advance: it’s possible that Gramps mailed these in to more than one school, and this school is just the one which happened to find/publish it… My guess is that a lot of schools received these.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 01:29:30 +0000

Just found this site and this one gave me a chuckle only because I live 15 minutes away from Youngstown.

sounds like a very proud grandpa.

By: JudyQ

JudyQ — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:46:15 +0000

I wondered at first how Madeline got the letter, but I think it’s a carbon-paper copy. See how the letters in Admissions are typed over? Plus, it’s not signed. So cute that Grandpa used an old-fashioned typewriter with old-fashioned carbon!

By: Lisbeth

Lisbeth — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 07:00:15 +0000

How is this in any way controlling? He clearly says he’s writing just in case an application should be made. I think it’s sweet and a poor choice of words rather than PA. It’s certainly not controlling.

By: Tesselara

Tesselara — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 18:37:08 +0000

Nice job, Grandpa! Noted the date (awesome!) I’m just wondering how the heck Madeline got ahold of the thing. Did Mr. Montoya mail it to her in a random moment of down-time?

By: Mrs.Beasley

Mrs.Beasley — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 06:24:16 +0000

I used to work at a law firm. One of the attorneys once told me that he’d never had any intention of becoming a lawyer. When he graduated from high school, his wealthy grandfather told him that he was willing to pay for his entire education in full, for college and post-grad. But only if he studied law.

So he did. And he turned out to be good at it, so it all worked out. But I’ve often wondered if I’d have made the same choice.

By: Jami

Jami — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 03:35:32 +0000

See, I just see this as controlling. What if she doesn’t want to go to Vassar? What if she wanted Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Oxford? What if she just wanted to go to a community college or no college at all? (Yes, I know she chose Harvard. But let’s pretend for a moment she’s a teenager about to apply for colleges.)

In a way it kind of reminds me of a friend of mine who wanted to go to a different college than her father did, but he let her know in no uncertain terms she was only allowed to go to Berkeley. Her family was very progressive in everything else, but she wasn’t allowed to choose her own college.

By: Say what!

Say what! — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 02:34:27 +0000

Hey, I go to Vassar! Not sure if this letter is cute or just weird… maybe both.

By: Clip Snark

Clip Snark — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 01:56:06 +0000

He may be the original helicopter grandparent.

By: kate

kate — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 22:45:08 +0000

This letter was written the day I was born!

By: Shana

Shana — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 22:29:40 +0000

Okay, this is ADORABLE. It’s just the kind of unintentionally-crotchety thing my grandpa would have said. *sniff*

By: kermit

kermit — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 21:07:35 +0000

The letter is dated 1987, and the submitter says the kid just finished her Master’s degree from Harvard. So at the time he wrote the letter, the grandpa had indeed just found out since she was born around that time.

By: ConfusedOne

ConfusedOne — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 20:52:04 +0000

All right, am I the only totally confused person here who thought that this man had only just found out that he had a college age granddaughter and that she wanted to get into Vassar, so he wrote a letter to the college to sorta kinda be helpful, except the passive aggressive tone makes things weird?

Reading comprehension not the best for me today, obviously.