How to make the most of your 60 cent stamp

I know Mrs BG would have been a letter writer. Can you just imagine finding her penmanship on an envelope in your letterbox at the end of your driveway with flowers nodding their heads in the afternoon sunshine? It's another era, and personally I have done nothing to wind back time.

My family is not known for its letter writers. My mother can fill an enormous box with treasures and ship it off without blinking an eye, but I cannot tell you the last time we exchanged hand written communication. My brothers have each sent me a letter, I think…maybe.

On the other hand, my paternal grandmother, despite having I-don't-even-know-how-many grandchildren sent me a beautiful letter each birthday. And my step mother's cards seem to arrive magically on the precise day required. I don't know how people do that.

So, it was a shock to marry into a family of inveterate letter and post card writers. My dear mother in law pops us a note in the mail every few weeks. Her handwriting is virtually illegible, but she'll also send along something of interest, something we've left at her house or something someone wants to give us. But her sister, Aunty Pat, is a legendary letter sender.

This last missive just had to be documented and shared. So here is what she sent;



Here is the actual post card, the central communication. But it must not have fit the envelope because it had to be trimmed. Not much content has been lost.

Here is a card for my mother. It also was trimmed. Aunty Pat has enclosed it because she says, 'mail is flowing back and forth' between me and my mum. And she assumes I will just pop this in the next one I send off. I haven't posted my mother anything in months and months… She's been great with the packages lately, though…

Here is a Dolce and Gabbana perfume sample card. It has no writing on it, but smells nice.

Here is a Chloe perfume card, with writing.

Here is a page from her newspaper about poor Michael Douglas. He looks really unwell.

This is an article about a man who was washing his car and heard two male koalas fighting. He went to have a look, came back and found a female inside his car. She has a baby in her pouch and was released in the bush.

This is a riddle. Not written on a perfume card. Anyone know the answer?

Here is a magazine article about Halloween. In Australia it's not really celebrated, so this is particularly interesting.

And finally, the back of the envelope is not just to enclose the letter. It is for last-minute thoughts or instructions. Neither she nor her sister has ever sent us an envelope with only the two addresses on it.

As you can see, my dear Aunty wrings every cent of value out of that stamp. She even asks us to pass it on to her sister.

The two sisters (my MIL and Aunty) are very similar. Getting a letter from them is like sitting at their kitchen table. You look at their photos and thumb through that little stack of paper they have by the napkins. It is not quite the same as zapping off an email or text.

So, I encourage, no, challenge you, dear readers, to send a card or letter to someone this week. Do it for Mrs BG, do it for my dear Aunty Pat. It's hard, I know, for some of us digital folk. Sixty cents is a significant amount of coin, and putting together a letter, bits and pieces, envelope, stamp and address is time-consuming. But it is worth it.