A Letter from Amanda Root

I am SO happy. Last week, I went to the mail box and came back in with a pile of packages and a small stack of mail. As Mom and Sarah are already working on my Christmas present, I wasn't allowed to open the packages, but the mail! That is another story. Usually it is junk mail which I have the fun of ripping open and then throwing in the filing receptacle (commonly called the "garbage can"). Well, this time there was a nice little white envelope that had a British stamp on it and no return address. This means a fan mail response! We opened it and it was a reply from actress Amanda Root, who played Anne in the 1995 Persuasion! Oh Boy! I was thrilled. No, I was more than thrilled . . . I was ecstatic! She was the one I had been hoping would answer, of all the people that we wrote to.

I had had to really search for her address and we had written to her in June. I wasn't even sure that she responded. We couldn't have been happier with her response. She sent us each a lovely signed photo and she wrote a note in answer to our letters which was just wonderful. She really is a wonderful actress. Although Pride and Prejudice is my favorite Jane Austen story and film, Amanda Root's Anne is my favorite film heroine. She really captures the character and the emotion of the part. The scene at the Italian concert never fails to send me sniffling in the corner of the sofa and the end where she reads the letter is so wonderful. You just have to see it!

So, right now I am working on the scrapbook page for her. She is right next to Ciaran Hinds (who played Wentworth) and they will have a spread with a bunch of Persuasion photos. Ohhhh, I couldn't be happier. God knew the perfect way to make my beginning of the year happy!

"Shout joyfully to God, all the earth . . . " - Psalm 66:1