"My heart is, and always will be, yours."

Every day, around 2:20 in the afternoon, I make sure to go check the mail. Most of the time we only get junk mail that gets thrown out or recycled immediately. Sometimes I wonder why I am so excited and wait for the mail to arrive. Well, Monday dawned grey and cold and I patiently waited (again) for the mail. Went out at 2:20 and filled my bird feeders before opening the trusty metal mail receptacle. Two things, neither was to become recycled material in the next batch of cereal boxes. One was a secret, which I still don't know about, and the other was an oversized envelope addressed to me in my own handwriting. As I am not in the custom of writing myself letters (I'm not that desperate to get mail!), it had to be fanmail. Sarah and I have slacked off of writing it (need to get back at it!), but there are still a few that we sent out there. Well, this was an interesting envelope because it had the US stamps which I had put on it and it had a UK stamp below the US ones. I figured out which one it was by the time I was halfway back to the house. Only one person had I sent fanmail to in the US who was a British person. When I opened it, I saw that I was right.

They were from British actress Emma Thompson who starred in the 1995 film of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. Ooooooo, was I excited! I have been waiting (patiently) for these. Slightly surprised that it only took ten months. I had kind of expected over a year. Well worth whatever wait. We each got a photo and I got a bookplate to mount in my copy of her Sense and Sensibility screenplay.

The funny story about the screenplay goes back to the first times we saw the film. My very, very favorite scene in the film is when Edward comes to the cottage and proposes to Elinor. So romantic.

ELINOR rises suddenly, EDWARD turns and they stand looking at one another.

ELINOR
Then you -- are not married.

EDWARD
No.

ELINOR bursts into tears. The shock of this emotional explosion stuns everyone for a second and then MARIANNE makes an executive decision. Wordlessly, she takes MARGARET'S hand and leads her and MRS. DASHWOOD out of the room. ELINOR cannot stop crying. EDWARD comes forward, very slowly.

EDWARD
Elinor! I met Lucy when I was very young. Had I an active profession, I should never have felt such an idle, foolish inclination. My behaviour at Norland was very wrong. But I convinced myself that you felt only friendship for me and that it was my heart alone that I was risking. I have come with no expectations. Only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is and always will be -- yours.

ELINOR looks at him, her face streaked with tears of released emotion, of pain, and of happiness.

I actually saw the movie for years before ever reading the book. Decided that I would try the book, so during the last quilt project, I got the book-on-tape of it. Really enjoyed, waited for the proposal and when it finally came . . . she passed over it! Never a word! She just says that (to paraphrase) everyone knows what happened so no need to tell what actually happens. She skips to dinner that night. Well! I had to stop the tape and think. Maybe I missed it. Rewind. It's still not there. Can't have missed it. Rewind again. Positively it isn't there. Man! I was stunned! My favorite scene. One of the most romantic proposals ever. It sounds just like Jane Austen. It isn't! That meant there was only one option. They wrote it for the movie. I thought about it for a moment. Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay. I really liked her playing Elinor, now I really liked her screenplay! I became an instant fan of hers. If you have ever read the book, you know how Sense and Sensibility is not written for film. Emma Thompson did a fantastic job adapting the book to film. In my opinion, she sooooooo deserved the Oscar for Best Screenplay. I would have sent her my screenplay, except postage to mail it would have made it outrageous. So, a bookplate will suffice. I couldn't be happier!