Of all the letters you have received, which gave you most joy?

I got a card with a very nice, lengthy message in it from my daughter 2 years ago during a very difficult time. I still have it, and it’s prominently displayed on my bookshelf next to my chair.

I used to correspond with my Grandmother via snail mail. Nothing better than reading a letter from Grandma!

I will add to this a letter that I got from my daughter as part of her HS graduation. They were asked to write a letter mid 12th grade to give to their parent on the night of their baccalaureate ceremony and Dinner.

The one saying my daughter was accepted to Taylor University, the best school for her for sure! The best school in Indiana no doubts!

I can’t recall a letter that made me happy. I enjoyed getting letters from my family and a women friend when I was in US Army’s basic training and Army intensive training school.

Sad isn’t it that people pretty much have stopped writing letters. I think that the last time that was back in 1996 it was from my Mother who died that year. No her letter didn’t bring me joy.

Back in the 1970’s when I was in college my Grandmother use to very frequently write type written (always single spaced) very long letters to me. They were sad letters in which she wrote about her life mostly days long gone bye. She usually wrote about her friends, people who’s names that I never knew of. Sad because she seemed to think that I knew the people that she wrote about. I learned later that she suffered with dementia.

I recently wrote postcards to my dentist from the Grand Canyon & one from London and he raved about them when I saw him for a dental exam. He seemed genuinely to have experienced some joy of receiving the post cards. He said, “No one sends post cards anymore!”. And thanked me several times for them.

The letter that gave me the most joy when I got it was X as in Ex-Wife.

The first letter I received from my oldest daughter the first time she went to summer camp.

My husband died in his sleep just before my birthday & the following year on my birthday I found a card hidden under some items in a cabinet telling me how much he loved me & how much he missed me every time I left him home alone. I know he didn’t plan it that way, but it sure did feel like he was talking to me & wishing me a Happy Birthday!!! YES…I still have it & I read it every birthday!!!

After my best fried (my grandmother) passed, her best friend sent me a great birthday card with love and signed for my grandmother. It was very sweet and I still honor her best friend, tend her grave, etc…and always will.

Mmmm…I was able to get some basic info about my adoption from the state of South Dakota back in 2006 or so. Using that info, I then filled out a form requesting that my adoption files be released to me and I had to write a letter explaining why I wanted the info. The judge sent me a letter saying that the state would grant my request. I burst into tears and danced a jig around the apartment!

His secretary told me on the phone that I was really lucky to have the form and my letter go to that particular judge. There were 2 circuit court judges, and the other one didn’t believe in opening adoption files, so it was just by sheer luck that I happened to get that one. The other one was on vacation. I have an opinion or two him, but that doesn’t matter anymore, at least not to me. Sadly, it may to others.

I wrote a thank you note to him after I located and contacted my birth mom.

btw, to those who don’t agree with the practice of being able to reconnect with birth families…I had already decided that I would not let her know who I was until I had done some research about her current life. But it turned out that on a genealogy website I found a cousin who was looking for any relatives of his family. I wrote and explained who I was without giving any particulars. I said the last thing I would want to do is disrupt her life in a negative way. He said he’d call her first and find out if she wanted contact, and called her right then. She did, he gave me her number, we talked and met in person within a week of my birthday. She had never kept me a secret from her family and had always wondered if I was even alive because she heard I had a heart murmur at birth. She said she always set aside time on my birthday to simply think about me.

That was the letter that gave me the most joy.