Growing up in a big family, and living far from grandparents we saw once or twice a year, my grandma would make sure and send birthday, graduation, and Christmas cards. When I was old enough to start writing on my own, I started sending letters back to her and we became pen pals. I wrote to her often, but especially during big milestones in my life – and she was always empathetic and sent advice and encouragement back to me.
One thing that stood out with every letter was her beautiful cursive handwriting. As a child I could hardly read it and would need my mom’s help translating it, but as I started learning to write cursive myself I felt so classy!
Grandma is 100 years old now, and for a couple years hasn’t been able to respond to the letters I send with her shakey hands, but she still appreciates them. Often times her brain is tired and doesn’t recognize me when I go to visit, but after an hour of chatting all of a sudden she will go “You are Irene, you write me letters!”
Letter writing has always been a fun way to keep in contact with the people who mean the most to me.
Irene