Thank You Letters

Just a short piece to start the year. This month Chasqui’s Writing World has a letter-writing theme but from different centuries. Later in January we will be going back in time but for now are in the present day. Happy New Year and let’s hope 2022 will be kinder to us all.

The audio version is on Anchor: https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/e1k5adn

Thank You Letters

Whether it was brainwashing from my earliest days of literacy or whether it was down to my innate scribal tendencies is open to speculation, but I have to admit that I have always enjoyed writing thank you letters and still do (there, I’m out!). With my December birthday closely followed by Christmas, I seem to think I often combined my thanks into one letter to each of the present-givers around the New Year, setting aside a couple of afternoons for the pleasurable task – not to get away with writing one instead of two, but to lengthen each of the merged projects. Initially, my letters must have been a bit run of the mill, with “thank you very much for…”, but in time I moved on to introductory paragraphs which were a little more imaginative – detailing the current location of the gift, describing how well the item of clothing complemented various outfits in my wardrobe or delighting in the thought of spending the token on a much sought-after book or album – before actually saying thank you and hoping that my opening sentence imparted my gratitude. Of course, these days many of these letters are written in the form of an e-mail, sometimes an e-card, but I am very diligent about writing, especially to friends and family at a distance, taking the opportunity to update them on news and amusing incidents.

Although there seems little value in recalling the thank you letters I have written, exchanging these with Jean brings me to a long and very interesting tale which dates back to before either of us was born, in fact to World War II. In those days my mother worked as a secretary for a small engineering company, and one of her office colleagues was a lady called Margaret. After the war, Mum and Margaret, by then both married, moved away from the area but kept in touch by letter. Margaret and her husband lived on the East coast near her sister Barbara and family – husband David and daughter Jean – and our families exchanged Christmas gifts. I don’t remember when Jean and I started to write, but it was in our junior school years and it was the start of a long and continuing friendship. As we grew up and the Christmas presents gave way to cards only, Jean and I kept in touch. Following her university years as a science student, she became a chemistry teacher and married James. They subsequently became parents to Joseph and Shona – now both grown up. The Christmas cards continued, but with electronic communication becoming so easy, Jean and I began to e-mail each other years before we met. Eventually we arranged a get-together which turned out to be a lovely day with just the two of us sitting for hours in a restaurant over a very long lunch. During this time, we caught up on family news which spanned over 50 years. We each brought photos and I found it interesting to hear about her family background and gave her some details about mine. The afternoon passed so quickly! Jean is a lovely lady, and we got along well, promising to meet again. However, it now occurs to me, as we live through this Covid nightmare, that in lieu of meeting face-to-face, we could have a chat via Zoom, so I shall suggest it to Jean when I next e-mail her.

As a footnote, when this theme was suggested as a writers’ group home assignment a few years ago my colleagues groaned. I, on the other hand, admitted that as a child I actually enjoyed writing thank you letters. Hearing this, my friend Rosemary came to a conclusion and told me, “Well, you’re just weird!” and I agreed, I think with an impersonation of Baldrick saying, “Oh, thank you very much”. Sometime later we were recalling this assignment and I mentioned to Rosemary that she had described me as weird. She hadn’t remembered, but her instant reaction was one of horror and was followed by, “How rude of me!” with an apology. I assured her that I wasn’t offended, quoting Baldrick as I had done before, and agreeing that it was an odd task to look forward to, especially for a child of junior school age, and we had another laugh about it all.

© Chasqui Penguin, 2022                                                             

Twitter: @ChasquiPenguin