A letter from Paul Harvey... or was it?

A letter from Paul Harvey has been sitting on my desk for more than a year.

I was holding onto the letter for the right time to include in a column.

Since the legendary Chicago newsman was laid to rest over the weekend, this is the time.

The letter was from Paul Harvey to his grandchildren.

I wish I could remember who gave me the copy because it is neatly typewritten and laminated.

When I first read the letter, the economy was still functioning. Barack Obama was still just a candidate. Whether we were in a recession was still being debated.

And of course, Paul Harvey was still delivering his daily radio newscasts.

Over the months, I would pick up the letter and read it, wishing that I had written something like it and wondering when there would be a good reason to print it here.

So, here is the letter that Paul Harvey read on the radio, Sept. 6, 1997... a wish list for those he loved:

"We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse.

For my grandchildren, I'd like better. I'd really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meatloaf sandwiches. I really would.

I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated. I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car. And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen. It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.

I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in. I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother. And it's all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he's scared, I hope you let him. When you want to see a movie and your little brother wants to tag along, I hope you'll let him.

I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely. On rainy days, when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don't ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won't be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom.

If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one. I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books. When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.

I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what Ivory soap tastes like.

May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole. I don't care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don't like it. And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he is not your friend.

I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle. May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays. I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.

These things I wish for you - tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it's the only way to appreciate life.

Written with a pen. Sealed with a kiss. I'm here for you. And if I die before you do, I'll go to heaven and wait for you."

When Paul Harvey died on Feb. 28, I did a quick check of the letter just to make sure it would be accurately quoted.

Turns out, he didn't even write it.

But in typical Harvey fashion, on the day he read it on the radio, he credited the person who did write it. Author Lee Pitts had first published the letter in his 1995 book People Who Live At The End of Dirt Roads. Pitts was a favorite of Harvey's and he quoted him frequently.

So, in honor of the way he lived his broadcast life, I'd like to add something to the wish list for his grandchildren that Paul Harvey read, courtesy of author Lee Pitts:

"May you always be confident enough of your own talent, to see the gifts in others - and always lavish praise on their accomplishments. The credit will be yours."

As Paul himself might suggest, just call it the rest of the story.

• Chuck Goudie, whose column appears each Monday, is the chief investigative reporter at ABC 7 News in Chicago. The views in this column are his own and not those of WLS-TV. He can be reached by email at chuckgoudie@gmail.com.