Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

Old French Letters Giveaway

Antique French letters

 

 

 

Writing letters.

Expressing one thoughts.

Ink to paper.

 

 

 

Antique-letters

 

 

 

A passage of time.

Made evident.

Given form to an inner voice.

Sharing words as seeds.

 

 

 

 

Collage old papers corey amaro

 

 

 

Expressing emotion over distance.

Connection. A message sent.

Thoughts read out loud in anothers mind.

 

 

 

 

 

Letter slot

 

 

 

Letter slot.

Press the sent key.

Paper plane.

 

 

 

 

 

 Stacks of stamps

 

 

 

Letters. Notes. Passages of time shown by ink to paper.

Messages. Greetings. Farewells… How are you fairing?

Godspeed. To Whom it May Concern. Just a note to say…

Communication between family, friends, business… lovers.

The art of penmanship.

Inkwell. Calligraphy. Fountain pen.

Pen, paper, envelope, stamp…

 

 

 

 

Address book 1800s

 

 

 

Letters.

I was going through some old letters of mine. Ones that I had saved for one reason or another-

Do you remember when,

With love,

Thinking of you,

If there is anything I can do,

XOXO.

 

 

 

 

Cards-with-letters

 

 

 

Do you have a letter that you keep close to heart?

 

 

 

Old-paper

 

 

Is there a letter you need to write?

 

A message you are withholding?

 

 

Copied old papers corey amaro

Share a story, or a letter, or a thought about letter writing in the comment section. Tomorrow I will pick a few and send them a packet of letters from the 1800s (as seen in the first photo).

Do you remember writing your first letter?

Was your penmanship consider "good" in school?

Do you have a letter(s) you keep close at hand?

Have you ever written a "Dear John"?

 

 

 

Comments

98 responses to “Old French Letters Giveaway”

  1. Plumes d’Anges

    Très belle année Corey et continuez vos magnifiques billets Corey, c’est beau beau beau !!! Bises. brigitte
    (c’est Marie-Claude P. qui m’a parlé de votre site…)

    Reply
  2. joodie

    so interesting that you mention this – was putting Christmas things away, and came across box of letters saved from years of correspondence between my best friend and myself…..she passed very unexpectedly, and I still think of her daily
    have no idea what happened to the mountain of letters I wrote to her
    all best in the new year!

    Reply
  3. Sue K.

    I have two favorite letters among several that I’ve saved – both are from my daughter (now age 33) when she was grade school age. One was written by her to a baby duck that she found while walking home from school, which later died. It starts out, “Dear Bill, I’m sorry you had to die so young…” Yes, even at age 10, she had the wit to name a duck Bill. The other was written later that same year, on Scotty dog stationery, from summer camp. She was lonesome, and made sure to have a strategically placed tear-drop hit the paper and smear the ink, near the spot where she requested that I tell her sister, brother, and grandmother that she loves them.

    Reply
  4. Jeanne

    More than words letters mingle souls.
    I have many beautiful letters I have kept from my late beloved Mother, my late husband, my Son my current husband and many great friends.
    I love long hand written letters and greeting cards and a mail box brimming.
    Love you
    Jeanne

    Reply
  5. Jill Flory

    Ah letters. I’m much better with emails these days. I used to write a Christmas letter every year. Now I just send pics of the girls along with a card I design and print and embellish myself.
    I remember writing many letters as a young girl. In particular I remember the ‘imaginary friend’ letters a cousin and I wrote. One of us was the imaginary girl and the other was an imaginary ‘secret admirer’! Oh but it was fun to get those letters in the mail and write back:) We had or own little soap opera going on and we were writing the script!
    My penmanship was never considered ‘good’ by teachers though friends told me they liked my handwriting.
    Dear John… never wrote one but in a way I received one…

    Reply
  6. Zosia

    My dad recently gave me a postcard I sent home from a summer camp and a letter he sent to me while I was there. It was over 35 years ago. He kept these letters when I was living in Canada. My daughter read the postcard and the letter and said “cool, you really were my age once” :-).

    Reply
  7. Laura

    I was best friends with 2 sisters who lived about 30 miles away from me when I was in school… we could write a letter and the recipient would have it the next day… instant communication in those days!!! The topics were horses and boys, depending on which sister I was writing to! I became a teacher, and in that capacity I had to develope good handwriting! I change my style for casual writing from time to time, mix in caps, or write all lowercase, or some letters cursive, or whatever fits my mood! I would love to win a packet of letters!!

    Reply
  8. Nancy from Mass

    I absolutely love writing letters. I have an Aunt n Uncle that live in Florida, and I write them about every 6 weeks – with a fountaine pen! I also have a few other family members I write to. I use a fountaine pen because it forces you to slow down and really think about the words you are writing. you can’t write fast with that kind of a pen.
    I started writing at a very young age to my friend Devon who lived a whole hour away. we wrote practically every week for about 16 years. I have no idea what happened to all of those letters though.
    as far as my penmenship is concerned….i have always been told I have “teacher handwriting”. I have to admit, I do have beautiful handwriting!

    Reply
  9. Jackie

    Great post, and timely too. One of my resolutions for 2012 is to write letters! My penmanship has always been terrible, despite that I love writing and receiving letters. With the advent of the computer, I have mourned the loss of letter writing as a way of communicating. There is something about gathering paper, pen and thoughts, sitting-maybe in a favorite chair, or a sunny window-and putting those thoughts down. Folding the paper, sealing the envelope, affixing the stamp and then waiting…ah the anticipation of waiting to hear back, to get a response, to open the mailbox, see the writing on the envelope, grabbing it and dashing up the driveway-opening the envelope as you dash-to find out your friend or mom, or beau has read your words and taken the time to respond.
    Email just isn’t the same…

    Reply
  10. Stormy

    My youngest son is a Phd student in Texas and I currently live in Pennsylvania. Even though we do communicate by quick, information exchanging emails, for the past couple of years we have also been communicating by letter. The letter form of communication takes more commitment and focus than an email, and I truly believe the results are worth the effort. At the end of the letter, we share a story about ourselves that we don’t think the other knows. So while my son and I have very different life styles, he’s a vegan and hopes to never own a car because they are bad for the environment, we are finding some of our similarities through our letter exchange, one of which is that we both love to find a real letter in our mailbox!
    Thanks, Stormy

    Reply
  11. marlis

    I love letters. I love finding one in the mailbox. It’s a much more personal form of communication. Words written are there always. Something to which to hold on. I keep a letter from my grandmother. Forget that she is chastising me for being an ungrateful daughter, it’s the penmanship, the flow of the letters, her handwriting. I see her hands every time I look at the letter. I had more, but lost them all in our fire, so finding this one at mom’s was a treasure. I also have a drawer full of letters from our son. I can see his growth between the first and the last. Thanks for such a gracious chance.. great post Corey, xo marlis

    Reply
  12. katiebell

    Oh yes Letters! One of my favorite things.
    I have always been an old-fashioned girl (though quite young – I turned 39 today!;)
    My dearest letter is one I received nearly four years ago. It was a love letter from this man who is sleeping in my bed right now. We had been together once before when we were quite young, (well mid-twenties)
    Things did not work out so well and I was quite heart broken. He is the ‘silent type’ and could never really express his feelings verbally. Eventually we ‘broke up’ but remained friends for a long ten years, in which he had a son, I started a gallery, my son grew up, his relationship ended, I didn’t have another one….
    I was a good friend to him and him to me.
    I never thought I would ever go back to that relationship, though there was still a lot of love there.
    One day I received a letter in the mail…
    In tiny writing he professed his undying love for me. I could not believe the words I was reading and had to stop and double check – as I had no idea how he felt about me! He said the things I had longed for him to say, he told me what was in his heart and what he wished for between us.
    I was stuck by the intensity, the hidden feelings inside this Cancerian boy… I wrote back immediately – but to say, I had been so hurt, that we both had been through so much, that we would need a lot of healing time before I would ever consider that again. Although I did not think we would ever be together again, I am glad I did not close the door on the idea completely.
    Because, three years later he gave me a call. He was in town and wondered if he could come visit? I had the night off and said yes, while making up the spare bed, I found myself feeling rather excited to be seeing him…
    The spare bed was not slept in that night! We have been together again, (in a new relationship this time), for the last year and a half. We have found a great deal of love, affection and care for each other.
    Which goes to show how important letter writing is.
    I got home tonight and wrote him this poem:
    (just before reading your post)
    I want you to know…
    I love you
    I appreciate everything you do
    every way you show your love
    even the hidden, quiet, silent things
    the secret messages of love you leave
    around the house and the garden
    I want you to know…
    I notice them
    I like it when you sing, when we dance
    When we rotate around eachother like
    the cosmic romantics Pluto and Charon
    I feel your love like a current gently
    Inviting me back home when I’m away,
    where we are making beauty daily.
    I want to say…
    Thank you
    Oh, and I soooooo hope you pick me Corey!
    I love those letters and will use them well (and after all it IS my birthday – cheeky me 😉
    Love and hugs
    Katie x

    Reply
  13. Stephanie @ La Dolce Vita

    Oh how I remember my first penmanship teacher, Mrs. Quigley. She was seemingly ancient to young eyes, but now I realize she must have been in her late 60’s, a retired teacher who came into the schools just to teach this subject. Despite the fact that everyone could read my handwriting and liked it, she did not. Not one bit. It was too expressive for her. She wanted everyone’s A to look like everyone else’s A. I was such a good girl, and always anxious to please, but I just could not stifle that swell of the pen. Thanks for a chance to win these letters!

    Reply
  14. Ellen

    Letters are almost obsolete now, aren’t they? It’s so much easier to dash off an email to someone. I remember watching the mailbox every day for a letter from my dear husband when he was in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. I wrote him every night. He came home with bundles of the letters I’d sent him! I have a childhood memory of my mom writing letters in the mornings after breakfast, usually to her mom and mother in law. It was always special to get a letter in the mail from them, sometimes even a letter just for me! Email is definitely efficient, and I love it, but it’s pretty neat to find a letter in the mailbox too!

    Reply
  15. Debra

    Letters, I remember my mother in printing in us the disapline of writing a good thank you note.
    At first it was a chore, which soon became a joy once I allowed myself to focus on the person I was writing to . I wish I could go back and read some of those early attempts at correspondence, I am sure they are full of youthful honesty and smiles. With the age of email one thing I miss is receiving a hand writtien letter, even better one with a photo.
    Thanks for the chance to receive a bit of history, the hand written letter!

    Reply
  16. Evelyn in NYC

    my favorite letter, displayed in the corner of a mirror, is from my father. He never wrote letters and I was the lucky recipient of one in his hand writing. We were both collecting the US state quarters. He sent me the hand written note and enclosed the most recent quarters released. I treasure that note.

    Reply
  17. Dottie Eberhart

    I love letters, particularly old letters. I love the paper, the ink, the stamps, the beautiful handwriting. I love that someone treasured them enough to save them through the years.
    I think that these tangible signs of the love that others have for us is so important in helping us through life’s challenging times.

    Reply
  18. Theresa Smith

    I love old French letters!
    tot

    Reply
  19. Jeanne

    My mother wrote to me faithfully once a week all through college. I loved getting her letters because they were a bit of home when I was far away. I loved those letters but I did not save them. Several years after college when my mother died, I found carbon copies of all the letters she wrote to me. What a treasure to read her words and hear her voice again. Years later when my own daughter was in college and spending her junior year in Kenya she sent letters on tissue thin air letter paper. I have all those tied in a ribbon and just looking at them reminds me of the adventures of my grown daughter.

    Reply
  20. sue at naperville now

    My parents, who didn’t live long enough to experience the immediacy of email, were faithful correspondents. When I was in college, a letter arrived weekly from New York. I saved every one because they were letters, they were from my parents and that’s what one does, doesn’t one? Decades later, as we were preparing to move, my youngest came in while I was re-reading all those messages, tears streaming down my face. She was worried that I had gotten hurt while packing up. I hugged her to reassure her that, indeed, all was well, just a little sad and so gratified to be hearing my parents’ voices again.

    Reply
  21. kas

    I recently received a thank you note in the mail (throught the post and everything) from my husband! I smiled and cried as I read his sweet words of love. He sent the note to thank me for the love and support and fun I bring to each of his days. I’ll cherish this dear hand-printed card for the rest of my incredibly blessed life.

    Reply
  22. Evacomeaux@aol.com

    To me, letters are short chapters of a loved one’s history. I think I’ve saved every letter and card I’ve ever received. My first letters were from my grandmother. I lived far from her as a child and I treasured every one of them. She wrote letters until she lost her sight. Then, she loved having letters she received in the mail read to her. I often wonder how many people she inspired to start writing them who never would have otherwise. She died a few years ago at 99. I’d give anything to receive a letter from her now… Eva

    Reply
  23. Lindy in TX

    I remember sitting at the kitchen table with my mother. I was a very young child and I was trying very hard to wwite in cursive just like her. I have always loved beautiful penmanship. Now, in America, the schools will no longer teach the art. The children will never be able to read script if they never learn it…many beautiful things will be lost forever.

    Reply
  24. martina

    My father would write to me when he was on work trips to Europe. He was really witty and had a gift for expressing himself well in writing and in person. The most treasured letter I have is the one he wrote to his parents on his wedding day. They found it after Mom and Dad had left for their honeymoon. In his big bold writing he thanks them for taking such good care of him and being patient raising him, despite the times he must have frustrated them. He closes in thanking God for blessing his life with such wonderful parents and praying that he is as good a husband and father as his dad was. There are lots of tear stains on the letter now, from Grandma and me reading it through the years.

    Reply
  25. Linda P.

    I have saved many letters, including a letter from a penpal, received when I was twelve, and surprisingly emotive letters from my stoic new husband when he was in officer’s school in the Vietnam era. I saved letters from sixth graders when I visited their classroom many years ago to talk about my newest book, with one of those sixth graders ultimately becoming a son-in-law many years later. The one with the most emotional import, however, is one I wrote more than twenty years ago to my then ten-year-old daughter on the eve of my cancer surgery. She was afraid I would not survive. I thought I certainly would, but her fear prompted me to write a just-in-case letter to her. What do you write in a letter your ten-year-old will read only if you have not survived? How do you compress all your love and hope for her and express the joy she’s brought to you into one letter? I couldn’t, of course, but neither could I ever throw away that letter.

    Reply
  26. Denise

    i still send letters and cards thru the mail. years ago as a child,my mother started me with the art of corresponding. thru out the years i have gotten great pleasure from writing. my most cherished letters are the ones i received from my sweetheart some 40 years ago. The bundle in a stack and tied with a blue satin ribbon. writing about them makes me think that it is time to get them out again and reread. 🙂 Bestest,Denise

    Reply
  27. Kathie B

    The most significant letters I own may well be a few old ones (1910s-’30s) in Portuguese that my generally hateful aunt (my father termed her “devious”) — who tried everything in her power, from lying to disinheritance, to shut me up after my accidental discovery of my hidden Portuguese roots — in an apparent twinge of weakness dug out of her basement and gave me a few weeks before her death, while I was visiting her in California. Even with this sole decent deed, she couldn’t resist sticking in the knife and twisting real goo, however, when she told me there used to be hundreds of them, but most had been thrown out.
    The letters were sent to her maternal grandmother by relatives back in the Azores. Owing to their age and condition (not well-stored), they were a challenge just to transcribe onto the computer screen, but even though I couldn’t make out all of the handwriting, and some of the spellings were archaic, I was still able to learn that my great-grandmother came from a different island than I thought, and that her eldest child (my grandmother) was also born there; this was a huge help in subsequently locating their baptismal records in regional archives on my next trip to the Azores. I also found out that a cousin of my great-grandfather’s came to visit them during a trip to America when both men were very elderly.
    Not surprisingly, most of the letters consist of excessive fawning, followed by a plea to send money; the folks in the old country (where rural life was admittedly still practically medieval) must have imagined that their American relatives lived on the proverbial streets paved with gold.

    Reply
  28. Jennifer in SF

    When I was 21, I graduated into a recession. Having no career prospects, I opted for an adventure, applied for a work permit in the UK, and worked as a temporary admin to save money for the trip for several. I left the day after Christmas for London. Upon arriving in London on a student work visa, I checked a housing board and found a room for rent at an address that was something from a novel by the Bronte sisters: West Kensington Mansions, Beaumont Crescent, London…I phoned, only to find that the room had been rented. I laughed and the woman paused and then suddenly asked if I could stop by the next evening. I accepted as I was in a new town and knew no one in London. At the end of our evening together, she announced, “I will tell the other girl that my niece from America has arrived and the room is no longer available!” She was 70 years old at the time, a refuge from Prague, and throughout my stay with her, she became my friend and adopted auntie. We shared many adventures in the theatre, city, countryside, reading, writing, learning together. When I left London, we corresponded at least weekly for many years, sharing news of politics, literature, plays, films, her acting jobs in film and theatre, travel, affairs of the heart, family, old friends, funny adventures. I have three boxes of these letters from her which I cherish, like my memories of her, with all my heart.

    Reply
  29. Joy

    What a subject! Isn’t it funny how letters can be so vastly different. They are windows into our lives at that moment. I just sent some postcards home, and today I’m missing home so much I could cry. I have been writing letters home through e-mail. Right now, it is my primary form of communication. I love it when my husband e-mails me. It’s so rewarding, though letters on paper are so much nicer. Then you can see and touch, and handwriting is so individual and personal, isn’t it.
    My handwriting isn’t very good I’m afraid. When I was in the 3rd grade learning cursive, my teacher kept me in during recess to make me practice. It got better for some years, but I’m afraid I’ve regressed. Maybe someday, I will take the time to improve it, but since I returned to school it seems I’m always rushing to write things down and so form falls by the wayside.

    Reply
  30. A friend

    I’m going to sign this one anonymously and ask it not to be directed to my web site…because I do keep letters from an old lover. I don’t know why! I don’t even read them or miss him – I am deeply in love with my wonderful husband and our son and our life. But it reminds me, I guess if I think about it, of an earlier, freer time in life. Romantic.
    They are from Wolfgang, a German fighter pilot. I was a young farm girl who had just moved to the big city to attend university a few years before meeting him. Can you imagine? Isn’t that a recipe for an affair to remember?
    Our courtship lasted a few years – we would write as there wasn’t email as readily available then. They are amazing letters. That is, until I got one from his wife. UGH!! I didn’t know he was married!!!!! Again, can you imagine? So…I keep them. I was thinking one day they’d make it into my memoirs. What a crazy time that was!

    Reply
  31. Amy Kortuem

    I’ve kept the letters my grandma wrote me. She was a great letter writer. They were stream of consciousness accounts of her days, her thoughts. She’d work on the same letter over the course of a few days, so I’d get to hear about what she made for several lunches and dinners (oh, I miss her cooking!!!), how much progress the men were making in the fields, what was on sale at the supermarket…even a commentary about the time my cousin thundered into the house to use the bathroom (I’ll spare you the details, but that was the most hilarious thing I’ve ever read!).
    I kept writing letters to Grandma long after she died. There was just so much to tell her that only she would understand. After that massive grief eased a bit, I stopped writing to her. And then I stopped writing letters to anybody. I just can’t do it. She was the one and only pen pal of my life, I think.
    Another letter I keep is one I found in an antique store. It’s in French, from the 40s, from a man to his “cherie”, writing to her from his workplace far away from her. He tells her it’s the end of the day and he’s just finished his “toilette” and he’s thinking of her. I have it framed in my bathroom.
    AND – I got a beautiful, brand new mailbox (copper with an embossed design on it) for Christmas, so it would be wonderful to get a package from France in it!
    (P.S. yes, I’ve written a Dear John letter. He wouldn’t get the hint verbally that I was breaking up with him. The letter did the trick.)
    happy new year, Corey.

    Reply
  32. Amy Kortuem

    That is so wonderfully scandalous! Yes, begin that memoir now!!!

    Reply
  33. Tammy Hensley

    Your blog entry today comes at a time when I am penning a letter to one of my oldest friends (and formerly dearest). It’s a very difficult one to write as I need to express my sadness and devastation at her absence from my life over the last couple of years in particular which is when I needed her friendship most as I’ve been going through very difficult times with fertility issues and trying to conceive a child. I don’t even know how to begin this letter as I try so hard to never say an unkind word or hurt others’ feelings but I am also at a point where the hurt I feel is to much to bear any longer without saying something.

    Reply
  34. Linda Kay Smith

    I have a letter written 88 years ago from my great-grandfather to my grandmother who was young and a new mother at the time. It’s just a short, one-page letter written on both sides. I love how he asks how “your little family” is doing and offers some brief words of wisdom. I even love the look of the letter, written in black ink in my great-grandfather’s elegant handwriting. It’s like a gllimpse into the past and into the live of people so dear to me. I wish I had more letters from relatives – they are so wonderful to read over and over. Thank you for the opportunity to share.
    Linda Kay

    Reply
  35. pattwolverton71@comcast.net

    My first letter was to my Grandmother in Yuba City when at a very young age we moved to England…I missed her terribly. My last letter I wrote was 8 mionths ago to my Teacher from High School from England . She now lives in California as do I. She does not do computer. I did send a “Dear John” to my French boyfriend in England from California. I am married almost 39 years to the Man I left him for. We remained friends and he and my husband got along well. My friends have given me beautiful stationary for Christmas and Birthdays. I love beautiful pens and even still use wax and a stamp to seal. My daughters and grandaughter write letters and thank you notes.
    My pennmanship is good since I learned from “Pennmanship teachers” I do notice as I age it is a little bit messy.
    Corey send me your address and I will wirte you the occasional letter. Oh how I love receiving hand written letters.
    I have kept letters from my husband and children. Kept letters from my Grandmother and husbands parents that we or our children have written them.
    I would love to have an old French letter for my writing box. It would be loved and treasured.
    Perhaps your bloggers should exchange addresses and be pen pals. I for one would be in.

    Reply
  36. Becky F

    I love sending, receiving and saving letters. From a very early age my mother always encouraged letter writing. I still have all the letters of a penpal from the Netherlands that I wrote to in my early teen years. I have all the letters that I received when I was away at college. I remember the excitement when I saw a letter waiting for me in my tiny, key opened mailbox. I especially love my grandmothers letters filled with all the happenings of her small town and always reminding me “to be a good girl”. The one letter that I treasure the most was one I received from my husband. We were dating, not yet engaged. He said that he had a dream and that he was on his deathbed, a very old man. He said that he was filled with an overwhelming sense of joy and contentment because I there holding his hand , a old lady, a sweet and pretty woman. He said that he knew God had given him a most precious package. That letter still makes me cry. We will be married 25 years in May.

    Reply
  37. Marilyn

    There is a letter that has been in my heart for 50 years and I wonder if I still have it. Your post is reminding me to look. There is indeed something about the written words that we miss today with internet.

    Reply
  38. Victoria Ramos

    A letter I keep close to my heart – from my dad to a neighbor – from the crows nest of his ship the Appalachian in the middle of the Pacific during the close of WWII. He had lied about his age, left high school, and joined the Navy. Such a very, very young man finding himself at the Bikini Atoll in 1946 during Operation Crossroads and the release of the fourth and fifth Atom Bomb. Just about 8 miles away, his account and description of it is both beautiful and frightening. So young, so innocent. Little did he know then that in his mid-30s he would develop a cancer so bad that it would take his life by 43. I have no other letters written by him….so these two letter I treasure and am glad that the neighbor decided 30 years after the fact to send them to my family.

    Reply
  39. Lorrie

    During the 21 years we spent overseas I wrote letters almost weekly to my parents and to my husbands. A couple of years ago, my MIL gave me two boxes of these letters, filed chronologically. She had saved every single one. I am rereading them slowly, reliving the times when my children were born far from my family, times of loneliness, times of joy. What a give to return someone’s letters.
    I also have a bundle of letters written to me from my beloved when he was tree planting up north one summer while I was in Europe.
    And another box containing sweet letters from my grandmothers.
    Letters are wonderful links to the past.

    Reply
  40. Kathie B

    From “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,” LXXI, as translated by Edward FitzGerald:
    The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
    Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
    Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
    Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.
    http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_FitzGerald_%28poet%29
    What kind of letter, if the roles were reversed, would you want to receive that would warm your heart and make you want to resume your relationship with your once-dearest friend?
    Let that be a guide in not saying anything you could live to regret. And please be sure to sleep on the letter for a day or two before mailing, so you have time to re-think and re-write, or maybe not even send it at all.

    Reply
  41. Patty Van Dorin

    A few years back, I was debating on what to do with a large stack of my husbands love letter that he had sent. One every week for the year we were parted. Unfortunately he was not able to make it back home. I treasured those letters for years.
    One of my biggest fears was that should I die, these letters would end up on a flea market table, not that it’s a bad thing but they are too special and I just didn’t want to share them with anyone even if I was no longer living. I am sure there would have been someone else that would appreciate them but I wanted them remain mine only but just couldn’t part with them.
    A couple of years ago, I layered the letters and envelopes between a quilt top and fabric backing, then quilting the letters between the fabrics.
    So in a way, I still have all the love letters close to me and yet they remain private. They deteriorate a bit every time I wash the quilt but to me that is the beauty of it.

    Reply
  42. Kay

    I have only one sample of my Daddy’s handwriting in a memo sent to me at collage, subject: $10 that he sent to me-“Love, Daddy”. My New Year’s resolution is to send one encouraging note through the mail each week.

    Reply
  43. Rosemary

    Years ago, when I was a teenager, I received two letters, each with a love poem. The sender did not reveal himself, and to this day I don’t know who sent them.
    Now I am sending my Mom letters because she has never had email and she now has Alzheimers. I’m hoping that she will save them to reread from time to time, perhaps to jog her memory.
    I would dearly love some old French letters!

    Reply
  44. Kristen

    When I was in high school, I dated a guy named Todd. We would pass notes every day, folded squares of little white notebook paper. They weren’t elegant letters, just little more than “hope you’re having a good time in history class” or “let’s meet after school for ice cream.”. I must have 30 or 40 of these now brittle notes that he wrote to me all those years ago. You see, I met Todd and started exchanging those notes when I was 14. When I turned 23, I married him!! I’m glad I kept those silly little notes. Although they’re tucked away in a drawer, I hope one day, I’ll get them out and preserve them in a scrapbook or a shadow box.

    Reply
  45. jennifer heck

    I used to write my mother & father in law weekly letters from Maxwell, CA to their home in San Diego. I wanted them to know what their two young grandsons were up to & I needed to stay connected to “the world”, from little Maxwell. I found all of those letters when my in laws passed away, many years later, kept lovingly bundled up in a drawer. They were like reading a journal of those early times in my life, of raising a family far away from “home” & friends. Now, 40 plus years later, home is here in Northern California, the Willows & Chico areas. I’m so glad to have kept many of the letters & notes that I’ve received through the years,too. I taught my children the value of “thank you letters” (though they thought it was torture at the time) & I’m happy to say they do write beautiful, thoughtful notes that often make me cry happy tears. Think I’m about to receive a few soon, for all of those Christmas gifts from old Santa!

    Reply
  46. Patti

    My beloved mother-in-law passed away on December 14th. We have been going through the old letters she saved. Among them are some from as far back as 1910 announcing the birth of baby, letters from her as a 10 year-old, letters from a soldier brother during WWI and letters from family members during the depression. To our delight, she saved letters from old boy friends and old boy friend wantabees as well as letters from my-father-in-law during their cortship. What treasures these are from by-gone times when life was so much more moral and up right. These letters bring laughter, tears and surprises. What treasures! And what great comments are in this post!!

    Reply
  47. smee

    The best love letter I ever got was an odd piece of “mail”, but not on paper. I married my high school sweetheart, now over 35 years ago. He was in electrical construction and often worked away from home to provide for our ever growing family. One day, well before cell phones or email, I got a bumpy little envelope in the mail. Inside was a 7-8 inch piece of rubbery tubing; the tubing that insulates copper wire. Seems that if you were doing whatever my husband did at work that day you had access to a machine that could permanently label the rubber tube. During his lunch break he stayed a minute longer to make a little love letter for me that simply said “John loves Penni” over and over. Simple, but profound as it told me, though we were apart, he thought about me while he worked. I still have it tucked among my pearls in my jewel case.
    Evidently a lot of my treasured mail isn’t on paper.
    I was an interpreter for a high school student almost 15 years ago. Part of my job was to integrate the student into the “main stream” and help them to socialize, etc. One of the student’s friends(Sheri)was this fiery redhead who just seemed to befriend everyone. I assumed that she was just being nice to the “old lady interpreter” and I was nice back, but never thought much more. The kids all graduated, I was assigned a new student at a different school and there you go.
    A year or so went by and I received a letter in the mail from Sheri. She was now in the Navy, serving in Japan, and began to write a series of interesting and art filled letters describing her daily duties, the men she dated, and all the unusual tidbits a young girl living in Japan could think to write. The letters would never come on typical paper and envelope; they would come as a torn piece of cardboard ripped from a Japanese package of this or that, a cocktail napkin from a club, a receipt from a store, or just “hello” in tiny pen on a single chopstick.
    I treasured these little artifacts from her time in Japan and eventually they began to come from other places she was assigned. Now that she is back in our home town I no longer get little tangible pieces of life but almost daily bits in the form of FaceBook.
    I miss the feel of the odd mail, but still relish the friendship that reminds me that kids and old people can find many things in common.
    Who can throw away any mail they receive?

    Reply
  48. Carolyn

    When I was about thirteen years old my cousin and her husband lived in France for a time and we wrote each other during that time. I remember being so excited when I would receive hers all the way from France.
    I went to Catholic school and a very high value was placed on penmanship. I wrote my letters over and over until I could do them perfectly the way the Sisters tought us. Lovely handwriting looks like beautiful little works of art to me.
    Did you know that cursive handwriting is not being tought in school any longer? What a shame! I’ve been teaching my grandchildren to write. My grandson, at 5, is very artistic and is trying very hard and doing quite well. Granddaughter , at 13, has succumbed to the digital age and everything is typed or texted. Writing is also more difficult for her because she has slight cerebral palsy in the hand that she uses to write with.
    I would so like the letters and put them on display.

    Reply
  49. Lorelei

    Oh Corey, I’d love to receive these letters. Isn’t there something special about writing or receiving a letter in the mail. The stationery, the stamps, the postmarks. I have some letters that my father wrote to my grandmother and it helps me to remember his handwriting and how he doodled little pictures on the envelopes….So much more special than emails or facebook messages. Keeping hope in my heart…Lorelei

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  50. Chris Wittmann

    Letter written between my mom and dad during WWII were very special to me. Mom lived in Germany, in the Rhineland, and dad wrote to her from his various posts after they met. I also cherished the letters written by my first husband, sent to me from the West Indies and England over a period of 1 1/2 years, before we married. Unfortunately, both stacks of letters were left in England years ago. So now I cherish the few my mom wrote to me when I moved to New England. There’s something very special about holding a letter and reading the words again and again from someone near and dear to you, especially if that someone is no longer with us.

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  51. Paula S In New Mexico

    Those bundles of stamps are so wonderful. I’d love to have them all. Every time I see them in the shop my heart skips a beat.
    Letters, why yes, I used to exchange letters with a boyfriend when he was away at college and then while he was in the Coast Guard. He is now my ex. A while back I was sorting through some old things and ran across letters I’d written him that he’d saved……oh to read them was quite a reminder of what a fresh young thing I was.
    I love getting letters and cards. I even send myself birthday cards just so I’ll get the exact one I want.
    Now I mostly write business letters. Pretty dry stuff.

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  52. Suzanne

    Corey, what a lovely and creative idea to ask us about
    letter writing! Isn’t there just something so very
    special about it….for many, a thing of the past with
    all the advancements of technology and computers.
    I have saved a postcard that my father sent to me when I was a babe and he was in World War II. It was so full of love for me and something I kept all these years. It has a smudge of red nail polish on the picture from my growing up years and it is amazing that it did not get thrown out. I found it a few years ago shortly after he passed away….during a move. I was so happy to have it and now treasure it with all my heart. It is in a scrapbook I made about his life. I still miss him dearly…thinking of all our happy times brings me peace.

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  53. Shane

    A wonderful giveaway idea Corey!
    My daughter has lived in France for 12 years, she is a good letter writer and I’ve kept every one plus all of her beautiful cards too.
    In her letters home she shares her ups and downs and joys and sorrows of her day to day life in her little village in Burgundy.
    Sometimes it is only a page and others are long, but they all paint a picture for me which keeps her close even tho the distance is 12,000 miles from New Zealand where we live!
    It’s meant I can picture their picnics in the forest, the wonderful fetes that are such a part of rural life, where all the children dress up in costumes and parade around the village!
    Their trips up to Paris once a year for the little girls to see the magical Christmas windows in the department stores. And a stop at WH Smith to stock up on books in English!
    And now my little granddaughters are writing too and sharing their stories of school life, their friends and they also send me the most wonderful pictures they’ve drawn too!
    These wonderful letters have kept us close over the years in a way that phone calls and skyping doesn’t. I can take her letters out and read them again and again, they make me feel I’m there with them and part of their life too!
    I would like to make a beautiful box to keep the letters in – so your old French letters would be lovely as part of the collage on the outside lid, with lace and ribbons etc too!
    The handwriting on your old letters is exquisite – sadly it’s an art most of us have lost today.
    Live, laugh, love and “be happy in 2012”!
    love and hugs
    Shane xo

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  54. Betty K

    Almost two years ago my grandson, Jeremiah, wrote his first letter to me when he was in first grade. At the time I was in Italy, and the volcano in Iceland erupted. I had to stay a few extra days. Jeremiah was afraid that I would never be able to leave Italy so he sent me a letter to my house in California to see “…how you are doing in Italy.” He also told me that he couldn’t wait “to live” with me for a week in June. His protective parents were finally going to let him visit me by himself while they and his little sister stayed at home in Arizona.
    The letter was so precious to me that I took it, the envelope, and his school photo to a professional framer who took my request very seriously. Every time I look at it, I feel so happy. I feel the love of my grandson, I remember my trip to Ialy and his stay with me, and I totally understand why people are so crazy about grandchildren.

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  55. tut-tut

    My mother saved all the postcards and letters I sent to her when I was an exchange student in England in the 1970s. “Hardy Britons, bobbing in the sea” was a line that she (and I) remembered after I went to the coast. Letters I wish I could have written would have been to my estranged father. If only I had had his address . . .

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  56. Kathy

    Dear Corey
    I am the same age as you with children of similar ages.
    I have a letter that I wrote to myself when my family moved from England to Australia when I was 14. It is amazing to look back at it from time to time to see ‘who’ I was back then, what my aspirations and expectations were and whether I have met them especially in a new country.
    My children love to read the letter as well and I have encouraged them to write one at the same age and have them kept in a box for them to look at when they are older and ready.
    Kathy

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  57. Shirley

    I love writing and receiving letters. When I was very young I would write letters to my aunt. My mom would review them for spelling before she mailed them for me. Auntie always wrote back and I loved receiving a letter of my very own. I have a small trunk with letters, postcards, and greeting cards saved from way back. When my grandmother passed away years ago she had a box with cards and letters that the grandchildren sent to my grandfather. My aunt gave me the ones from me. It would take days to read them all. When I do read some of the cards and letters they bring back warm memories of family and friends, many who are no longer here.

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  58. Gina

    My grandmother wrote me a letter when I was 8 and in hospital. She wrote soothing words telling me that she was thinking of me and that things would be better soon. I found it again when I was tidying a drawer. My grandmother was long gone. I was 29 and had recently miscarried. The letter had me sobbing as I read her words again. It was as though they were written for me, the adult grand daughter as I grieved. I was sure at that moment my granny was watching on me from above. I’ll always treasure that small piece of paper with its cursive writing.

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  59. giftsofthejourney (Elizabeth Harper)

    Letters from my aunt, Wylly Folk St. John who wrote children’s mysteries in Georgia in the 60s & 70s are some of my most valued and there’s a letter I wrote to her when I was eight in the Rare Books and Special Collection section of the University of Georgia Library with all of her manuscripts and correspondence.
    I’ve saved letters from my teen years and throughout my adult life. I scan them to be sure I always have them, but keep the original letter as well.

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  60. Priscilla G

    There is a letter that I wrote several months ago that meant a lot to me. You see, a little over a year ago I lost my beloved mother right before Christmas. Over the course of several months after her passing, I mourned not only my mother’s passing but I mourned our cherished talks with each other and the sharing of my days with her and most of all her wonderful words of wisdom.
    A friend suggested that I write my mother a letter and she assured me that even though I could not send it, she would still be able to receive it through prayer and through love.
    I took my friend’s advice and did just that. What a wonderful and liberating feeling it gave me! I have written to her several times since…on Mother’s Day and on other important occassions. Even though I cannot physically mail it to my mother, I know that she hears my every thought.

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  61. Barbara from Australia

    My most treasured letter was written to me from my soon-to-be husband the night before our wedding. He expressed his love and his dreams for our future. Just perfectly romantic. I lost him in a car accident when he was just 40years old and that was now 23 years ago. That letter and the cards and notes he gave me are a constant and tangible reminder of our great love.

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  62. Robin Williams

    Do you know what a grateful diary is? It is a diary for one to write things that mean something to you. For me, that something is Chap. Anytime someone says something nice or repeats a gesture of kindness that Chap had done, I write it in my diary with the name of the person and the date. It’s such a pleasure to hear these stories but even better to write them down (in pencil) so that one day I will be able to read to his child from this diary just exactly what a wonderful man his father is!

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  63. Hillary

    I love that i have kept all the letters and cards that my grandparents sent me over the years. Now that they are all gone I can still hear their voices and see their faces though them. It warms my heart each time. Helps on the days that I miss them most!

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  64. nancy johnson

    hi I have some letters from my father’s Mama .she had a 5th grade education . What I loved in her letters was how she would comment by writing HAHAHA . I always could hear her laugh all the way from Texas . Nancy

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  65. Lorretta from NH

    The most precious letter to me is one that my father wrote to my mother when she was pregnant with me, her first child. It was a letter of endless love for her and great expectations for me and the family that they were to become( two was a couple, three was a family). This was in the 40’s and growing up it seemed to be an unusual thing to write to your wife, but maybe not. I will treasure it always as both parents are lost to me know. Some one early on wrote that they scanned their letter and kept the opriginal intact. Never thought of that but will do it soon. I plan to get a book of memories, photos and letters together of my life and siblings and parents and make copies for each of my children for Christmas next year. This letter will hold center stage. Wish me luck!
    Lorretta

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  66. Carol L

    The first letter I ever wrote was a thank you note to a neighbor when I was five years old. I remember sitting at the kitchen table composing the letter and when I was finished I handed it to my mother to mail. I remember her first showing it to my father and both of them smiling and giggling.
    Later that week they informed me that I had written “Tanks a lot for the present”, instead of thanks. I was so mad that they didn’t tell me of my mistake. Of course I understand it now…well sort of !

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  67. Jenny K

    In third grade our class heard about a little boy our age who had just gone through a very difficult surgery. Our teacher asked us to write a letter to him if we wanted to. I was the only one who wrote a letter. I stayed in during recess to finish it. At the end of the school year, my teacher read a copy of my letter for the parents program. I was shocked and embarrassed. I had no idea that my 2 page letter was anything special. I just wanted that boy to know that I was praying for him and that I wanted him to be able to play again like me. My teacher teared up at the end of the letter. It made me feel special that my teacher thought my letter was sweet.
    I love getting letters. There is something about seeing someones handwriting and knowing that those pages were in my loved one’s hands…

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  68. Kathie B

    Suggestion: Scan precious letters as images into your computer, then store them on “the cloud,” as a form of insurance lest you lose them.

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  69. Pamela.

    What a lovely post–and wonderful comments. I am a mail artist and so so letters are very important to me. Some of the most important letters I have are the ones my (now gone) mother sent to me when I moved from the east coast to San Francisco. I kept every one and they are very comforting to me to read now. I was a girl reading them once and now I am a mother reading them with a different point of view. I can see how much she missed me. My blog is all about letter writing, mail art, making envelopes and making new connections through the post office. I hope everyone will write a letter to someone this week.

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  70. Lorraine

    Writing letters has always seemed so difficult to me. Slowing down your life and quieting your mind to enclose only the person you are writing to, and then carrying on a one way conversation with them. It is only as an adult and with the advent of the internet that I have learned how to communicate in writing and to appreciate the beauty and comfort of letter writing.

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  71. Rachel L

    Actually, just this week I found an old diary of mine, written when I was between the ages of 13-18 (I am 40 now), and found an old letter I wrote to my first love when he broke up with me at 17. I was heart-broken and left to go overseas shortly afterwards to get my mind on other things (best thing I did) – but I must have written him this letter just before I left, because on the back it very dramatically had in my neat printing, – ‘please deliver to _____ when I have left the country”. Obviously it never made it to him, but it was kind of sweet reading it again and feeling those raw emotions and the intensity of a teenager’s first romance. :o)
    Rachel from New Zealand

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  72. Judi

    Thanks for letting me share this, Corey. My parents raised 9 children and it was easy to get lost in the crowd and not feel noticed. Once we grew up and left home, Dad’s letters were usually short and business-like: went there, did that, here’s the check for school, love, Dad.
    But one night, when I was 48 years old, there was a different kind of letter from Dad, attached to a poem by Jayne Relaford Brown, “Finding Her There”. It starts, “I am becoming the woman I’ve wanted, gray at the temple, soft body – delighted; cracked up by life.” Yeah, right – it was 1 A.M. and I’d just gotten home from work (from the job I was about to lose, though I didn’t know it then), to a silent house, family asleep – I was exhausted, discouraged, at the end of my rope. Working too hard, not feeling appreciated, trying SO hard.
    In the dim and quiet room, I read the poem, read his letter – and cried and cried as though my heart was breaking because that’s what it felt like. Not because it was bad, but because I finally felt seen and appreciated. In his short, abrupt all-CAP printing, he wrote this:
    “I saw this and it spoke of you. Scott Peck said, “Life is difficult”…but you’re a survivor. It’s wonderful to see you “green and growing”. I can’t begin to tell you how proud of you I am. I love you very, very much. Dad”
    This was the letter I had waited for my whole life. It’s framed and hung in my studio where I can see it every day. I miss him so much, so very much.

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  73. Linda

    What lovely stories to read! Letters touch our souls, don’t they? When I was a little girl, just moved away with my parents from our home town, my grandfather wrote to me. Instead of writing in his own voice, his dog “penned” the letters to me, telling me what was going on back home, in the garden, and how much my grandfather missed me. Several years ago my aunt gave me post cards that my grandfather’s mother and aunt sent back and forth to each other, not being able to phone(or email)each other as we take so for granted. Treasures those older letters are. But not all letters are so treasured or kind. For some reason a few nights ago, awake in the middle of the night, I remembered the letter my now ex husband wrote to me several years ago. An ultimatium to return to him, threatening me that I would lose my son. Why on earth did I think of that letter now? In the middle of the night? I wondered where it is, but I don’t even want to see it any more. Thankfully, his threat, like so many he gave through the years, was unfounded. I never lost my son, now graduated from high school and soon to go to basic training for the Marines. I’m certain we’ll exchange some good letters while he is going through that training! Believe me, I’ll keep track of those letters!

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  74. Debbie Z.

    I think of two letters. The first is a letter I still have that my husband wrote to me when we were dating nineteen year olds. He wrote, “I long to twirl you around in field, the sunlight shining in your beautiful hair.” We are now fifty-six years old and he could no longer be labeled a romantic guy. I love him still and it helps to have that old letter he wrote, filled with sentiments he no longer expresses. The other letter is in my parents’ possession but I would love to inherit it someday. It was written by my great-great grandfather from a Civil War prison in South Carolina. He speaks of eating grass, his belly hurting with hunger. He longs to see those he loves once again. Two letters, each with a different kind of longing. Letters mingle souls.

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  75. Julie Holivk

    Thanks for reminder. I do have a letter from a boy, I wanted so much and he would nothing to do with me during my high school years. Then at our senior sneek day, we were on a boat and HE KISSED MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, he was driving the boat at the time, we landed the boat on shore, no one hurt. BUT I WILL NEVER FORGET THAT KISS. Nothing ever happened after that kiss, he went to the service. And he wrote me a letter. Which I will cherish forever.

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  76. Cheryl ~ Casual Cottage Chic

    During the last few days before my mother died of cancer I wrote her a letter. I wanted her to take the letter with her in the next life ~ to remind her that she was loved not only for being a mother but for being a best friend. I reminded her of several “ups and downs” we experienced over the years, the laughs and tears. I read my letter to her the afernoon on the day before she died; the letter was put in her urn with her ashes. I like to think she reads that letter each year and it brings a smile to her soul.

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  77. Terri

    I love old letters. I have letters that my great-grandmother wrote to my grandfather and grandmother. Those same grandparents gave me a “hope chest” (it was a lovely old trunk) for my 18th birthday. Inside were over 50 vintage postcards to and from the owner of the trunk. I’m 53 and still love to go thru those postcards – not to mention decorate with them too. Such wonderful stories people have posted. Thanks for such a special giveaway!

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  78. Victoria

    When I was a very young girl living in southern California my friend and I were playing in the area behind all of our houses called a WASH……the area was for run off from heavy rain storms. The perfect place to stretch your imagination……and catch horny toads.
    We were minding our own business when a car drove over one of the overpasses and threw out a neatly tied stack of letters. We ran for the package ….. Opened it and started reading. The love and longing and sadness and sharing of happy moments was over whelming even for our little minds. We felt like intruders.
    We buried the letters so no one else could intrude like we had……now as an adult I wish I’d of kept them……they spoke volumes….and they were a little piece of history.

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  79. Brenda, Walker, LA, USA

    …A funny incident concerning a letter from an old New York estate. I gave it to the mayors dad, who was collecting war items and things for a display at the Veterans museum. It had a few sentences in it from a man at war to his friend, who obviously never knew if she was his girlfriend before he left. He had heard of her “outing” with a couple they knew. The couple had asked her to go with them, he called it a “threesome” ( not the type one would assume today) He told her not to ever allow it to become a “foursome” (blind date)because he wanted to have her as his when he got back. Our Mayors dad gave it back to me because he said it was “controversial” and had the “threesome and foursome” words in it….I laughed, graciously took it back and gave him another!

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  80. sarah webb

    i have always been drawn to the beautiful writings on old postcards…many that i have collected that sit in a silver dish just have the person’s address written on it and nothing else and i have to think, what could that message have been to that person?? just a hello not written?? a thinking of you?? just the address and nothing more………………
    i have also kept close to my heart the letter my mother wrote to me before i got married..telling me she had prayed about me and my husband and she knew God had sent me a loving and christian man to live forever with!
    i have saved every letter my son has written to me and every card he has given me and keep them in a box! he is only 11 but i love to read the quirky and sweet little things he has written to me along with some cute smiley faces!!!
    i admire when people have beautiful penmanship and enjoy going to antique shops and looking at the expressive curves of the letters on old letters and postcards. everyone is in such a hurry anymore! no one could possibly think to sit down with pen and ink and compose a letter!! i would love to win this and would display them in my silver dish for all to see!!!

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  81. Teddee Grace

    The European handwriting is so beautiful. I had a very special letter from my now deceased father that I kept in my Bible and both were among things that were stolen from a POD that I was packing with boxes when I moved from Phoenix. I still have this horrible feeling in my chest when I think about some uncaring ingrate having access to those personal things. Teddee

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  82. Lisa DeNunzio

    A day late and a dollar short. Oh well. As a young girl I had a ‘pen pal’ in Scotland. Her father, who we only knew as Major Patrick, had been stationed in Italy with my Dad during the second world war. We corresponded all through our young years, the British music invasion and the birth of our children. Now many, many years later we have met here in Coral Gables as her son (who is now married and has his own child) lives but a few streets away. Amazing. I am trying to scare up some pictures in anticipation of making a post on my blog about this.

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  83. Kristin McNamara Freeman

    Dear Corey
    From my childhood days under the watchful eye of my mother or grandmother I wrote thank you notes for every gift received, notes of invitation to friends for a visit with my family or a trip to the beach or perhaps to go for a hike and early on I saved some of those notes and letters I received. I have notes from my father in his 90’s sharing important late in life thoughts with me. On October 22, 1993, my mother took a small yellow lined pad and from her hospital bed she wrote to remind me of special times we had shared when I was but a little girl. The following morning she passed and her little note come to me as I grieved her loss and I read it still from time to time.
    Finding just the right paper or note card for writing is always an exercise to be enjoyed; I love to take little paper bags I receive from a vendor, open them out and writing on the plain inside. The taking of thoughts from the head or from the heart and as they travel down the arm to the hand to use a pen or pencil and just let the words flow to the page. There are some notes waiting to be written running around within me as I write this to you; today those notes will become alive and find themselves in envelopes traveling off to the people to whom they are intended.
    Thank you so much for this picture and word story today.
    Kristin

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  84. Linda P.

    I love this story, Victoria!

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  85. Linda P.

    Wow! That was a letter that all daughters would love to receive! I’m going to have to go look up that poem now, because I’m old enough to have that soft body Brown mentioned and I, too, want to be “cracked up by life.”

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  86. Linda P.

    Such a touching story.

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  87. Patti

    A letter changed my life. I was 18, living in NY, just out of high school. My new boyfriend at the time was 18 and away at college in Arizona. We wrote each other weekly. One night, in a fit of teenage drama, missing him terribly, I wrote him a letter that said, in part, “when are you leaving that hell hole!” Instead of writing back, he came home on the next bus. It took him 3 days. We’ve been married 26 years.

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  88. Pat Kahn

    I had been married for several years and my mom had been dead for quite some time, when I happened upon a letter she had written, but never sent to me. Reading it, I realized for the first time how much she loved me.

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  89. Pat Kahn

    It is a lovely story.

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  90. Pat Kahn

    This is such a moving story, Cheryl.

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  91. Diane Dainis

    I have all the letters and cards with notes in them that my husband of 28 years has ever written me. I treasure each of them. In the corner of all of the cards and letters he drew a small flower with snowflakes or the sun what ever was appropriate for the time. I plan on doing a collage out of those little flowers.

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  92. Annie v.

    living in the US and my in-laws in England I would write to them at least once a month and one year my father-in-law whom I adored had a little gold envelope made and inside he wrote the loveliest letter to thank me, so kind, the best gift he could have given me now that he is gone I still have this wonderful reminder of a nice man.

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  93. Sara R

    I was always fascinated with letter writing since I was so small.
    At first, I started to write letters to Santa. When I realized that it wasn’t really the Santa who gave me presents i gave up writing letters to Santa but the thirst to write with someone was still there. There was this Penpal service called International Youth Service (which is not closed..) I joined it. 😀 And wrote a letter to my first penpal in 2004. 😀 It was hard to make at least a few sentences by then. I totally sucked at letter writing and my English was at it’s worst stage considering that I come from a country where English is not the native language. While writing with my penpal, I practiced writing and also built up a great friendship. For about 2 years it went great, but we somehow got caught up with our studies and stopped writing. A few years ago we started writing with each other again. 😀 So I can proudly say that I still have connections my first penpal. 😀 Meanwhile, I also have another 2 great penpals whom I have been writing with, for the past year ! 😀 I always love when I see a letter inside my mailbox. I get super excited to read what’s written , to read how they lives are going, have deep long conversations…etc ! 😀 😀
    I never got tired of letter writing and I never will ! 🙂

    Reply
  94. Marie-Noëlle

    I have kept a few old letters… Of course, I have kept nearly all the letters written to me by my husband and by my children… But I would not qualify these as “old” !
    One of my favourite “old” letters was written by my mother to my father when he was in Algeria (war).
    I was just born when he went away for 3 years. My mother used to write about me, she would relate every single stage in my growing, giving him an amount of sweet details so that he would feel by us…
    I think I keep this letter for those sweet details and also because my mum’s handwriting was very refined… and I like simply watching it!!!

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  95. Elaine

    My father’s family hailed from Norway and settled in Minnesota. It was a large family and they had a Round Robin which was a packet of letters from everyone that circulated around. When you wrote your contribution, you removed the letter of the person you were mailing to and this is the way the family all kept in touch and up to date.

    Reply
  96. Esther

    What a special memory, Judi. Sweet to see the photo of your father on your Nov. 2nd blog.

    Reply
  97. Tongue in Cheek

    I discovered one postcard in a shop that simply said: “Happy Valentine’s day to
    my dear little girl. With love from Daddy who is sitting by the radio on Hail
    Street.” Then I noticed that there were a number of cards with the very same
    closing, “…from Daddy who is sitting by the radio on Hail Street.”
    I realized that the little girl saved these cards for nearly 90 yrs., that she
    must have died, and her precious cards were now tossed into an old box in an
    antique shop. I had to keep them together—so I searched for as many as I
    could find and purchased them. They remain together yet–not separated by
    category–they belong together.
    I was so curious about this man and child that I used postmark, address, the ℅,
    Hail St., etc. and through census reports have concluded that the parents must
    have divorced, the mother & daughter lived with her parents, and the very lonely
    father lived by himself in an apartment. Postcard a couple of years later was
    sent to another address so I choose to assume the mother remarried—but the
    lonely man remained sitting by the radio on Hail St.
    PAM

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  98. Tongue in Cheek

    I received the above email from a reader and had to include it here!!

    Reply

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