Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Scribble Picnic. . . . . . . . . Letters/Mail


Today I'm sharing a peek into a special box.


My precious box of dozens of letters from my mother date back to 1977.
Sadly, I didn't keep ones which flew across the pond from 1962 when I came to
 the US until then. It was the year we downsized, packed up, and moved south from
New England - but these I did keep thankfully.
I spent many hours reading them not long after her death, putting them in
 chronological order with instructions as to what I would like done with them
 later, realizing they are a special part of my family history. Mother wrote in her
distinct handwriting, her words always a joy to me being so far away from home.

In the days before computers, and when international phone service was so expensive,
 we wrote weekly on those thin blue air letters, or sheets of airmail paper tucked inside
 blue or white envelopes, often with the addition of a few blurry photos etc.
 I believe that for both of us letter writing was not a chore but an enjoyable exchange
 of our daily lives separated by those thousands of miles.


~ My box of beautiful memories ~

Michael's SCRIBBLE PICNIC theme for today is Letters/Mail - hope you stop
 by HERE later to see what our group has come up with to illustrate such an interesting
 subject. Letters can often be full of pleasant surprises. . . . . . .  once you get past
 the bills and junk mail crammed into our mailboxes or stuffed through the letterbox.


18 comments:

  1. Hi Mary,
    We thought about the same thing. I love my Dad's letters to my Mom. I read one this morning. Maybe I will read one a day. I read through them all after Mom died but my thoughts were too scattered to really take them in. This will be good. One day I hope to write a fiction story based on these letters.
    Blessings and always enjoy your posts and colourings,
    Janis

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    1. . . . . . and as I mentioned Janis, I'll be awaiting that book later!
      Mary -

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  2. Beautiful letter mail piece Mary filled with precious memories, thanks for sharing.

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  3. I see we all have a soft spot for love letters....Your painting and your story is so touchings. I see that already Janis, you and myself have share personal love letter stories. How important they were...and with modern technology....it's lost. How sad.

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  4. What a lovely treasure. I lived far too close to Mom for letters but I have kept a number of phone messages so that I can hear her voice. It's comforting and can soften a day.

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    1. How lovely you can still hear her sweet voice - I look at a photo of my mum every single day, usually have a few words with her, and then feel so much better and closer even though she's gone. . . . . . and I miss her so much even after 15 years.
      Mary -

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  5. love air mail, just little envelopes travelings thousands of miles to their destination, that's a of travel. it's good to have those letters to remember your mother by.

    have a lovely day.

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  6. This is why I decided to hold onto so many letters. So much information and family history! Glad that you have held onto yours.

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    1. Vee, it's so hard to let go of some things isn't it?

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  7. That is a wonderful treasure. The last years of my mother's life I wrote to her on pretty cards every Sunday. She kept them in a drawer by her bed in the nursing home. When she died I wanted the letters, but they had tossed them. I was so sad. I rescued a hand full, but not most of them. Your mom's letters are so special and so glad you think so too.

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    1. I'm so sorry they discarded your cards and letters Marilyn. . . . . . . Mary x

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  8. What a wonderful thing to have Mary. So special.

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  9. Beautiful and touching post, Mary! What a beautiful box you keep them in too...very special memories indeed.

    I still have an old Aerogram letter that I received from my Grandmother when she was visiting her daughter in South Africa many years ago. It was a rarity actually as my Granny hated writing letters. haha Personally, I've always loved letter-writing and still use this 'old-fashioned' method to correspond with a dear online friend I've known for years.

    Enjoy the rest of your week,
    Serena :)

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    1. I do still like writing letters - or at least messages inside pretty cards - online e-mails will never really take their place, well at least for our older generations!
      Mary x

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  10. Thank you for sharing the memories in your special box. How lucky you are to have something so precious.

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  11. Oh, yes, I have a big plastic bag full of my own mother's aerogramme envelopes! I doubt anyone has kept mine as she could never really read them anyway since my handwriting is so atrocious. Anyway, this is a lovely image you've put together, Mary, and what a family treasure to pass onto your kids and maybe grandchildren! The only reason I've kept my letters from Mama is for the alone as I won;t reread them--1. her handrwriting while lovely, was also hard to read and 2. jsut like photos, I don;t like to look back as it makes me too sad I can nver recapture those moments! Plus they were often feeled with anguish of me so far away and how hard it was all round for us all.

    I love you doing Scribble Picnic as you always add such a wonderful story to your entries, colouring them in so sweetly too. thank you so much, Mary! Now, I really need to catch up on all your posts missed in one of those loooong marathons. Just need some serious down time to do it and good cuppa...which I ALWAYS do when reading your posts as such.

    Oh, and btw, congrats on being a great grandma yet again soon enough! :D

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  12. That's wonderful that you have your mom's letters, and in such a nice box! I'm pretty sure I have all the ones my mom (and my dad, and many friends) wrote to me, but unfortunately not gathered together so nicely. It's another one of those things that I need to do, but somehow don't get to.

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