Writing Letters

My mother tells me that I started writing letters when I was 3.  I sat next to her at the dining room table as she wrote her weekly letters “back home,” imitating her down to the tilt of the head.  Given that I wasn’t yet in school, my letters were 100% phonic – if you sounded out a “word,” it was perfectly understandable.  Though, if you were the poor grandparent on the receiving end, the initial reading might have been bewildering.

After I learned that there was an established system of spelling, I still wrote letters  - usually to thank various relatives for gifts – but I dreaded writing them.  Each letter was a painstaking undertaking involving countless “how do you spell…” questions.  No longer were they pages in length, but a lonely paragraph in form-letter style.

In college, letter writing became essential – a desperate, if tenuous hold on all that was familiar.  With friends scattered throughout the world after graduation and me moving 10,000 miles away from my parents, letters were our only viable means of communication.  I treasured each letter received and quickly sent a reply, knowing that it could take anywhere from 2 to 5 weeks for it to reach my friend.

I still write letters today, though I mostly use a computer in place of pencil and paper, a spell check rather than my mother, and the Internet instead of the post.  It is much easier and faster to stay in contact with friends and family, but I still dig out the pen, paper, envelopes and stamps on special occasions.  I feel there is nothing like a hand-written letter to say, “I care.”