A LETTER is half a visit
When your best friend, or mother, or father or sister or brother
Cannot come to see you in person,
Especially if you up and moved far away
From your hometown and most family members,
a letter from a girlfriend,
or your sister,
arrives in the mail
and you recognize the handwriting
and eagerly anticipate
sitting down
with a cup of coffee
to read very carefully each line.
some photographs slip out of
the envelope, recently taken of your nieces and nephews,
and you marvel over how much they ‘ve grown.
Life today has changed the contours of letter writing,
and perhaps will become a lost art, for now we have cell phones
and email and instant messaging…yet for those unfamiliar with a
handwritten letter, the letter is half a visit, but more personable than
email or text messaging, and in a letter you tried to write legibly and
correctly, not like Hw r U text messages today.
A letter arrives today from one of my penpals and I carry it around with
me in my handbag, while I run errands and read the letter while I am
waiting in line at the bank or sitting in front of a school waiting for the children to come out; I savor each line and it’s almost as if my friend was
there in the car with me.
Sandra Lee Smith
Originally written day 22, May 22,2009/updated June 22, 2018
