At the same time that I was serving a 28 year military career, my older brother was serving a 21 year prison sentence. The thought of him being locked in a cage horrified me. Hollywood movies and television shows depicting prison life compounded my terror. I had no way of knowing what was real and what was fiction. Either out of my desire to help my brother to maintain his dwindling dignity or my fear of knowing the truth; I never asked.
My heart wanted to visit him everyday but the reality of my life made regular visits impossible. Collect calls from a prison in Virginia to Germany on a military budget was out of the question. Despite being the younger brother I somehow felt responsible for his safety and sanity. But what could I do? I began an aggressive letter writing campaign where I wrote to him 5-6 times per month. As my life became busier and my military responsibilities increased, I quickly learned 5-6 letters per month was not a pace I could sustain so the frequency of my letters declined.
After about 7 years of his incarceration I became consumed with guilt for leaving him without any mail in a prison many hours from his nearest relative. By this point my visits were as infrequent as 2-3 hours per year. Let that sink in. The total amount of time my brother saw a member of his family every year was the equivalent of two really good naps!
What I didn’t know at the time was Sulie Seeds was being born. I committed to sending him a letter or postcard at least twice per month with a word of encouragement. Every letter ended the same way with me imploring him to keep his head up. On more than one occasion he told me my letters kept him alive in prison.
Now we want to do the same thing for your loved one. At Sulie Seeds we know we can’t change the world. We can’t tame inflation, we can’t ensure every child receives a quality education and begins life with an equal opportunity to live the American dream. There are a lot of things we can’t do. Here’s what we can do:
We can help you and your loved one feel a sense of connection.
We can provide him/her a visual hug with stimulating, high quality, department of corrections approved images.
We can provide intellectual stimulation with aphorisms and maxims.
We can help break up what my brother called the “everydayness” of prison life while giving them something positive to look forward to.
Most importantly we can help you feel connected while they feel remembered by you. As an added bonus we may even give them a reason to smile.
Go to SulieSeeds.com to learn more.
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