Your granddaughter is such a lovely young woman--and obviously a talented photographer! Hope the rest of your time in Germany is fantastic.

I'm picturing that cemetery in the still quiet of the snow and know that it must still hurt to think of him there. He was such a very handsome "young" man.

Beautiful descriptive writing Lois. Stunningly evocative of the place and your feelings.

So happy to see you family
Actually, I have an urgent question for you, dear writer. Sorry that it's not related to this posting, though
My school had a test on your book GIVER, and there was sth I couldn't quite understand.
Were people AWARE of the phenomenon related to "wind"? I know that the Giver passing memories of 'wind' over to Jonas may give him an idea of what the "word" was. But could it be said that people in the community all 'recognized' what wind was? I mean as a sensation, a feeling. Can it be understood as a concept of "air" back and back and back, when people established the new theory by taking in the word, "air" into the phenomenon they vaguely knew as sth pleasant on a hot day, frustrating on a cold winter day?
I would really appreciate it if you could give an answer for this complicated question

It IS a complicated question and I'm not sure I have a satisfactory answer. The boy, Jonas, would acquire an understanding of the word "wind" because he would experience it. I imagine his comprehension would be gradual, like that of an infant experiencing the world in small stages. The people of the community would not understand the word or the concept because they would not have the experience. Their understanding of anything would be very restricted.

But according to the phrase, "opening his tunic if it was a day with breeze" in chapter 7, wouldn't the people KNOW (on the premise that Jonas is one of THE people, since ch.7 is before his memory injection; what the phenomenon was? I'm not saying they knew the word for it, they couldn't be aware of it-but they would feel sth different externally, wouldn't they? After all, climate control didn't get hold of wind
Basically, what I'm thinking is that not knowing the word for sth doesn't equal not knowing the feeling or the sensation. Please let me know if my theory(?) is right. Thank you.

p.s. I believe external sensuous cognition does not equal feelings, so what I've said above does not mean people can actually feel wind, that's been contradicted; what I've questioned is, would they KNOW externally.

Frankly, it has been 22 years since I wrote the book, I don't have it in front of me and can't remember the passage. And it is Christmas Eve, and I am traveling to be with my family. So I will answer you hastily and say yes, you are right, one can feel something without knowing what it is, or how one should react to it.