“I’ll Make a Card”

Last night, when Laurea called us from California to say good night, Kina explained patiently how her day had gone, told her mother that she loved her, and then immediately offered to “make her a card”.

Making cards for people has been Kina’s recent preferred expression of love and gratitude. She asks for the subject’s favorite color, pulls out her glittery markers and her notebook (a smaller version of the notebook that I use to draw these morning newspapers), and produces a signed portrait—often after asking me to spell HAPPY BIRTHDAY or THANK YOU.

She has given cards to random people who take her on paddleboards (bottom right, November 27 of this year), family, friends both near and far, and literally anybody who has a birthday. The cards sometimes have art on both sides, are usually delivered flat (not folded), and take between twenty seconds and twenty minutes to produce.

The person Kina for whom Kina most often offers to make cards is: Laurea.

In second place is: Ms. Chelsea.

We have spotted her cards framed on the wall, found them inside books, and seen them pressed to people’s hearts.

Kina has not yet drawn a card for Laurea this trip, but I assume she will do so on Thursday night, before her mother comes home. When she asks me what Mommy’s favorite color is, I will say “red”. When she asks for the marker for Mommy’s hair, I will give her the brown one.

She knows how to spell “Mommy”. It is spelled “MOMME”.

Her own name, at the top, will be bigger than “MOMME”.

That’s okay. It’s her card.

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