I am trying this summer to bring back the art of letter writing, or at least notes, to friends and family members. Facebook is great, email is handy, the phone is easy but there is something special about getting a handwritten letter in the mail. It seems more personal and thoughtful in many ways. My handwriting is awful and I wish it were better for the recipient's sake but I am still going to try and write 3-4 letters a week.
When I left for college in the fall of 1985, my mother told me she would would write me every week and that she expected a letter from me in return every week. That was hard work! And she let me know when I missed a week. Sometimes her letters were short and hurried, bringing news of the weather or my father's latest projects (usually involving a mess in the house somewhere) and sometimes full of news and thoughts on life. I have many of her letters and will post some soon.
After college, I moved back home so there was no reason for letter writing but a few years later when I married and moved to Chicago, the weekly letter requirement was reinstated. We both looked forward to those letters. When I had children, pictures were literally worth a thousand words and I could get away with a few sentences when I included pictures.
In the last 3 years of her life, my mother was pretty sick, mentally and physically, I could really tell when the letters stopped coming regularly or worse yet, when the writing was so shaky and often didn't make a lot of sense. Still, she tried and I faithfully kept up sending letters until she moved here to a nursing home in 2005. My mom passed away last summer and I have so many wonderful memories, and all those letters. I will always cherish them.
I am looking for cute address labels and stationery, preferably preppy, does anyone have any recommendations for websites?
