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Reaching Out

As COVID-19 is continues to cause its havoc, we have been reaching out more to family.  This week I posted this 'care' package to my sister who is locked down in Victoria.


When I was looking about for some nice stationary to write my note on I was pleased to find a bunch of pressed flower cards I had done many years ago - perfect.

The week earlier I received letter from my 99 year old Aunt and Uncle who live up in Queensland.  They are reaching out to family just to make sure we are all doing OK.  It was so lovely to receive a hand written letter in the mail, a rare thing these days.  

I fondly remember the days when my Mum and Dad sent a letter every week, and I sent one to them too.  That was when phone calls were expensive and we only got to visit them for a week once a year.  It would be interesting history if I had kept them, but I didn't, other than a few from their later years.  They contain newsy stuff about the goings on in the town and the church and what other family members were up to.  When I was cleaning up after they passed on I found a few of my own letters among their papers which I have kept.

I decided to use another of the pressed flower cards to respond to my Aunt and Uncle.

Interestingly back when I was going through Mum and Dad's things I found a letter from this same Aunt to my Mum written when she was just a young girl during the war.  Dad had taken his new girlfriend (soon to be fiancee) up from Melbourne to meet the family. The letter contained a frond of pressed maiden hair fern.





Comments

  1. Wow, to be able to write at age 99 sure is wonderful! I remember Ingo's Grandma (where we lived before I moved to Braunschweig) wrote me a Birthday card at age 80 and I could hardly read it.
    Oh, so sad you didn'´t keep all those letters! I only found two, also...
    Ohhh, sweet memories you have there!

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    1. Her writing is more legible than mine. I have been typing for far too many years to still have good handwriting.

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  2. Yes it is nice to receive a handwrtten letter. I too have terrible handwriting now from using the computer. Mum had beautiful writing until well into her nineties.

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    1. Writing on the stationary gave me extra problems because the paper had lumps in it. At least that is my excuse.

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  3. I am aware how writing becomes difficult as we get older and, for this reason, I purposely keep a handwritten journal which I write in every day. I still have a bunch of aerogramme hand-written letters I wrote to my mother when I was in my twenties and living in London. She handed them back to me after I returned home. At the time I didn't want them and was inclined to throw them out, but now I'm glad I kept them. They are an interesting record of my travels overseas. I like your pressed flower cards.

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    1. I too write a handwritten journal every day - hasn’t improved my writing unfortunately.

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  4. A very special post filled with love and caring.

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    1. Love is needed in these difficult times. My sister is actually a Queenslander but family circumstances have kept her in Victoria almost the whole year.

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  5. That pressed flower card is beautiful. Hand crafted added to hand written is a special gift these days. I recently decided to write (on the computer, of course) a letter rather than an email to an old friend. I found it surprising that it took me much longer to compose. Lacking the immediacy of an email it somehow also lacked momentum. It took me a long while to get it into the mail. And I used to love to write and send letters!

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    1. I gave up email the day I left work (other than for bills and things). I agree there is something quite different about a letter vs email or texting.

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  6. I do like your pressed flower stationery, just hope it survives the post! I have letters from my daughter when she lived overseas and also from a friend who used to write regularly over 30 years ago, but now we either email or phone which is nice, but not quite like receiving a hand written letter. I am sure your Aunty and Uncle will love to get your letter on that lovely paper.

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    1. I had a bit of a thing about pressed flowers for a while inspired by some lovely ones picked up in the UK and Japan. Also the maple leaves in our garden provided great material then I went on to discover all sorts of things to press.

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  7. I loved writing letters when I was younger. Emails just aren't the same.

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    1. I am not sure I loved writing letters - they were just the best way to communicate at the time. I loved writing these however so might write some more.

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  8. Love that pressed flower card and love the gesture of sending handwritten letters.
    I still remember writing a weekly letter to my parents when I was living in Germany 35 years ago. Phone calls were restricted to once a week from a pay phone, as we didn't have a phone at home. Now we have so many means of communications but sadly we seem to be less connected to each other.

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    1. It would be interesting to see how kids (and parents) got on if all of the modern communication was shut off. Perhaps as you suggest they might end up more connected.

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  9. What an interesting find. Your pressed flower cards and envelopes are lovely.

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    1. I am glad you enjoyed the cards. I delighted when I found them, hence this post.

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  10. Your pressed flower cards and envelopes are so beautiful Joan Elizabeth, I'm sure they will be treasured by their receivers. Hand written letters were so exciting to get in the post, I must admit I write to my grandchildren in Sydney often, my son tells me they get excited when the postie brings letters from Gigi 😉

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    1. Good on you for writing those letters to your grandchildren. I must suggest to my sister that she does the same for her little ones, it is such a good idea.

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