Welcome to the family sweetheart! You are now a full 3 months old and curious about the world around you. You are one gorgeous baby by the way…….and as babies go I suppose you’re not too bad….even your auntie Ruby can stand to have you around for the most part.

My heart is however quite saddened every time I hold your sweet little hand, or look into those big blue eyes. You have no idea of what the life ahead holds for you. You are the child of a single mother, who has no job, cannot look after herself, drops you onto everybody’s lap but her own at every chance she gets, who smokes like a chimney while breastfeeding and who is but a child herself.

You were unplanned, an accident, not wanted initially and a little girl who will never know who her father is, as you mommy has no clue. But do not think bad of your mother…….she is doing the best she can, and I will give her plenty credit for that. The decision to keep you was a big and mature decision to begin with…..and while looking at the bigger picture I don’t think she’s doing too bad of a job. She’s trying her best, her mother is helping out a whole lot and the whole family has gathered around our little angel baby. We love you dear!

My cousin, your mommy, is starting her brand new job today. I phoned her this morning to see how she’s doing…..she was heartbroken at having to leave you at the lady who is looking after you. But you’re a happy little baby and didn’t even cry once. You’ll be just fine……now we just have to try and convince your crying little mommy of this.

Everybody was shocked and I suppose a little disappointed when we hear about your mommy’s lifestyle and that she was pregnant with no idea of who the father was. But we love her. She’s a sweet little thing and packed the bull by the horns when it came to facing the consequences. I wasn’t disappointed just flabbergasted that in this day and age with AIDS and all, that some people still refuse to use birth control pills, condoms(don’t worry about not knowing what these are yet) etc when having a little fun. What on earth was she thinking??? Not only did she have to cope with the fact that she was pregnant……she also had to cope with the trauma of going for HIV testing.

But of course, then your little angel face showed up after 9 months. And although some of the aunts and uncles had up until that time felt saddened and angry about her situation, all those feelings were lost the moment they laid eyes on you. And you charmed all of them….even the most grumpy. You’re mommy will have to buy a shotgun when you get a little older!!!!

I just have one piece of advice for you. Regardless of how sweet you are, and how cute you are or how you laugh and hold out your little arms when you see me……crying your auntie Ruby awake at half past 5 on Christmas morning is just not on!

Lots of love, hugs and kisses

Auntie Ruby

As I was kissing and hugging dear old 2007 goodbye on her deathbed it suddenly occurred to me that it might be a brilliant idea to send you little, baby 2008 a letter containing some advice for the year to come.

2007 was a darling old thing. She taught me plenty of hard lessons, caused many a tear to fall, but also brought along many good times, laughter, romance, brushes with millionaires, radio dj’s, R2 000 bottles of champagne and a circle of cyber friends. She also brought along the end of an era……..my articles finished, I moved out of the commune and into my own little pad and the end of the first quarter.

I hope that you will follow in 2007’s footsteps and continue to make me feel like a spoilt little brat when it comes to all the blessings I have received. Feel free to teach me a couple of important lessons, but if it is at all possible to do so with less tears and heartache than used by 2007, it would be highly appreciated.

I hope that you will bring me a fabulous year in my new position, that work will continue to be a pleasure and a passion (for the most part anyway), that my friends will continue to build into my life as they have in the past, that my gran will continue to be healthy and full of spunk even though she is getting quite old, that my parentals will have a fantastic and blessed year……seriously, they deserve it hey!

Gosh..there is so much that I could ask you for, advise you on and set out as guidelines…….but the truth is that doing that would spoil all the fun and surprises to come. So I’ll only say this. I am a very blessed little girl, and I am grateful that I have a job I am passionate about, a car that runs, a house to live in(however small it might be), decent food to eat, that I have been able to continue to be a shoe and handbag hoe, that I have a family that loves me, friends that treasure me and treat me with respect, and that I have plenty of hope and love in this here little heart. So all I ask of you is that you use that as a guideline for the year to come, OK?

Love

Ruby

Hey dollface……my guess is you are smiling right about now, you just love letters don’t you? Along with the thrill of receiving a letter you are probably a little puzzled as to how a letter from the future is even possible, and what on earth made your 25 year old self decide to send you this letter. Unfortunately I can’t answer your first question. It’s got a whole lot to do with time travel and atoms and stuff like that. Just think of it as a letter brought to you by Michael J Fox via the Back to the Future movies.

As for your second question………….I was tagged in a meme by two wonderful ladies, Nats and Sheena, to write this letter. What on earth is a meme you might ask. I’ll just leave that part up to you, you’ll figure it out eventually.

My guess is that you are now somewhere in your first year of high school. The rational side of you won the long battle as to whether or not you should go to a high school for fine arts or a normal high school and you are attending a wonderful, but normal school….well as normal as a small town high school with mostly boarding school kids can be. You later learn that you were extremely privileged to attend such a small school and that your experience is very different from most of you big city friends(the ones you meet later)…..different but much much better.

There is so much that I could tell you, but I’m going to try and limit myself to only a few things as the letter will never end at the rate I’m going. You know that really handsome blond guy, the one with the curly locks who is the school’s cricket and rugby star? You end up dating him for 2 years. Actually, I think that will happen pretty soon, as you started dating him somewhere during your first year in high school. That silly Danica girl tries to break you guys up by kissing him in front of you, but like the prince charming he is he pushes her away quite roughly and runs to your side…relationship saved. The relationship unfortunately does not make it past 2 years, but we’re still friends today….he’s getting married next year by the way.

If it is at all possible for you not to date or even become attracted to Mr Drews that would be fabulous. Yes, I know he is tall, dark, handsome, mysterious and 18. I realise that you have just turned 16, your gorgeous, fabulous and everybody loves you, but trust me on this one, he’s bad news! He tries to beat you up when you finally break up with him(since your responsible and rational), but lucky for you Isak comes to the rescue. Yes, the same Isak you now hate…..you guys will become firm friends in the not too distant future.

By the time you finish high school as head girl and dux you are well respected, independent, confident and you know what you want out of life. Your friends love you, even your enemies tend to like you and the only people who despise you are the girls who date your best male friends. The principal pays you R2 000 for you final matric results(FYI) and you looked unbelievable at your Farewell.

You finally decided to let your dream of being a doctor go in October of your final year in high school and started studying for a Chartered accountant at the University of Potchefstroom the next year. This is the last comment I’ll make about your academics…..you do really well and you pass your CTA…so don’t worry about it OK?

You stay in Res for 3 years and in this time you have tons of friends and quite a few love stories. You meet the most amazing man, who later becomes a famous singer and is still your friend. You never consider dating him while studying, but trust me at 25 your suddenly discover that if he were to ask you to marry him…you would. nuff said!

The last year at UNI you live in a house with your best friend and 7 guys. Your best friend is absolutely awesome by the way…but you’ll only meet her when you go to uni. The guys are great and you feel like an absolute princess. They become some part of your very selective close friends. This is also the year you end up dating a guy for 9 months. He dumps you without any reason and treats you like shit.(oops sorry…….don’t learn to say that word OK???) You later find out that he had been dating another girl for the past 3 years and they got engaged the night he broke up with you. Dry your tears and move on. Do not feel guilty!!! You are not the other woman…you were unaware of this and have no reason what so ever to feel bad. You are gorgeous, proud, pure of heart and he didn’t deserve you to begin with.

After Uni you move to JHB. You love it! You live in a house with a bunch of musicians and are envied by thousands of young girls for actually living with these guys. You are however, not attracted to any of them and have no dirty little gossip secrets to swop with the hundreds of screaming fans who corner you after you received a kiss on stage. You finally move into your own little house in 2007…..just before your twenty fifth birthday.

You will be involved in a horror crash late one evening near the end of September 2005. You will be bedridden for 2 months, but you survive. Not untouched, but completely unfazed. I’m sure you do not want to know this now but your older brother scooted over to England right after he finished university. He stays there for 4 years and also meets the girl of his dreams. She is not English, she’s a yank, so hurray hurray, you go to the states for a wedding and a holiday.

You will also meet your boy. Remember in Little Women how Laurie was Jo’s boy? Well, that’s exactly what Nicky becomes. He has this gigantic crush on you initially, but he will outgrow it and you guys become the best of friends. He will at times break your heart, but he loves you to bits and will move mountains for you if it was needed.

You also end up dating a multi-millionaire for about 2 months. He owns the Seattle Coffee chain(you know the coffee shops you find in Exclusive books??, oh wait, that will only start happening a bit later, so look out for them when you are about 17) He’s a sweetheart, but he’s not the one for you. You keep feeling like he’s trying to buy you with all the gifts and money he’s flashing around. The romantic relationship doesn’t last too long, but you guys become great friends after the initial healing process of 2 months.

I almost don’t want to tell you about this one. It’s meant to be a surprise…..so I’ll only give you the slightest of details. You will date a very famous radio DJ for a while. He’s awesome and even after you break up a part of your heart belongs to him. So when you meet a funny intelligent guy in a bit of a dodgy bar and you find him a tad entertaining…don’t give him such a hard time OK??He’s an angel and you end up loving him very much.

All in all I think you will be proud of the woman you have become. Always stay true to yourself and don’t worry about all the people who get nasty when they become jealous of your fabulous life. You are successful, loving, bubbly, hard working, honest and simply the best person you could possibly be! Your relationship with your parents become even better than what it currently is…so you never have to worry about them not supporting you.

There is so much more to tell, but I’ve just noticed that my “little” letter is becoming very very long. So I’ll stop here.

I love you angel!

Lots of hugs and kisses

Ruby

P.S. – I’ve noticed that I keep switching between past and present tense as this whole time travelling thing is a bit confusing…….for me it’s already in the past, for you it’s in the future and somewhere in between it is present…..normally your english grammar and spelling is just fabulous….so don’t worry about it.