My 95-year-old mother-inlaw,
Helen, is the only
person I know who still
writes old-fashioned “snail mail” letters.
Everyone else communicates with
me through email, chat, or even more
briefly with Facebook posts. Attempts
to get Helen to switch to email have
been unsuccessful, as she prefers
the concrete nature of letters to the
abstraction of electronic communication.
I can’t say I blame her. I’ve been
writing letters since childhood and
enjoy the physical act of writing and
the mental act of composing a letter to
someone specific.
Despite having a quiet life where
each day is much like another, Helen is a
good correspondent because she follows
a simple but effective technique that
I remember practicing when I began
writing the annual obligatory “thank
you” letters to relatives for birthday or
Christmas gifts. Helen uses my latest
letter as a template when writing back
to me. Point by point, she responds to
each of my chatty pieces of news: asking
questions, offering opinions, requesting
clarification, voicing appreciation, or