Does anyone write letters any more? Does it matter?

I used to love writing letters.....I doubt I can even hold a pen now - oh I can, I still keep a small Diary....just one line daily, unless something noteworthy happens.
I keep one or two old hand written letters from my darling, much missed mother.
Also have a letter from my daughter, when she was in university. I think I have one from my middle son as well. And a small, hand written bday wish on a scrap of paper from my youngest son, because he had forgotten to buy me a card.
You have jogged my memory...I know I saved them in one of my memory boxes....must sort them out one of these days.

I write a few letters to put in with certain cards at Christmas. One friend who I always looked forward to receiving a newsy one back from has just scribbled a few lines in with her card the last couple of years, so I did the same this year.
She must have twigged, as she promised an e mail in the new year, which would be great, as an e mail is much quicker I know, but never materialised.
This year I won’t bother either.

My DD was saying the other day that she had received a ‘real’ letter from a friend. She said it was such a pleasure to sit down and take time to read it. So much better than an e-mail.

My 2 youngest GC age 5 and 6 live 130 miles away so I haven’t seen them since Feb other than video calls.

They both wrote me lovely little letters at the start of lockdown. I wrote back to them and they were so excited to receive their very own letters. It’s turned into a weekly event between us and it makes my day when their letters arrive. Even though I’m reduced to a blubbering wreck when I read them.

We have written letters, sent small treats, and DH draws cartoons of our restricted life, and we send them to our 8 DGC, once a week. The only drawback is that the packages are often a bit bulky, so I have to queue for about 30mins at our very small Post Office to get them weighed.
They write back and send pictures, even the teenagers.
We also FaceTime them, as well!

My DD, aged 28 does, she’s writing to her best friend during lockdown and has always written to her Grandfather aged 92. She also sends him postcards whenever she’s away, even if it’s only for a weekend. She is his only granddaughter and I know he really appreciates the handwritten missives. She does also send him emails as do the grandsons but the letters and postcards are very special to him.

ONly last week i wrote a 3 page letter to a very elderly lady that i know. I usually write to her every 6 weeks or so. She obviously has been shielding due to age and health issues, prior to that she had been unwell and has effectivly been indoors since the beginning of the year bless her. I also write to my oldest friend every now and again. We do text and message each other via messenger on FB. Both of us love to recieve a letter now and again. My daughter always laughs if i say i had a lovely letter from her. I love to recieve paper and envelopes in a pack as a gift as i will always use them.

I used to write a lot of letters; to family when we lived abroad, and friends; to my son when he was away at school and to my daughter at uni. I still have some of the letters my mum and dad wrote to me when I first left home; and one from my sister. I wish I had kept more. I wrote a letter to my step grandson recently, enclosing some cash for his birthday and he said he was so delighted to receive an actual letter that he would have been pleased with just that! My handwriting is so spectacularly awful these days that I’m almost grateful for email!

I try to make the effort to write a little letter to pop in with Christmas cards to people I don’t see often, but otherwise no.

When DH worked abroad for a few months in the early 70s, we wrote each other daily letters which I kept, tied up in blue ribbon. I came across them in my lockdown cupboard sort the other day and was so looking forward to reading them. Most of them are so tedious. A bit of lovey dovey stuff at beginning and end and pages of “news” about working overtime, prices in shops and public transport failings, planting veg, watching TV and sewing skirts. There is the odd gem though, so I’ll have to at least scan each one to decide which few to keep.

The group emails we first started when our three went off to university, then the WhatsApp threads we have now are so much better. All the comments short and funny and to the point, and great fun to look back on.

Travelsafar you do exactly what I do by the sound of it!
In 'normal times' I visit two elderly ladies once a week and obviously since lock-down that has stopped.

Knowing how much they value the visits, every week I have phoned each one on 'their day' but I have also sent a little letter to each of them. However, I don't write the letters as doing two each time means my handwriting can't cope!
I do them on my laptop with a bit of clip art thrown in for good measure but I can obviously personalise them too!
They love the letters and I know, from the phone calls that they are both keeping them and re-read them regularly.
Neither are on-line so emails are 'no go' but I really don't think you can beat a 'hard copy' letter.

Sadly, technology has taken over so much that folks don't even speak these days let alone actually write

I have sent several thinking of you type cards to my best friend who lives in Wales, goodness knows when I’ll see her next!

I used to write letters to my daughters when they went to university and they wrote back and I still have some of those and the last hand written card from my grandmother before she died. I write small notes in several Christmas cards but don’t write as many letters as I used to. More emails, texts, and WhatsApp now. Perhaps I’ll start writing more again.

I started diaries about them and us , as a family , when my granddaughters were born 11 years ago. I’m still doing that and have very many now. It’s all written in notebooks with their photos on the front , a Christmas present every year so I don’t run out . It’ll be something for them to read when they grow up and I might not be here

I’m slowly but surely filling in the Grandparents’ Journals I bought to pass on to our grandsons. There’ll be a lot of family history and anecdotes for them when they’re finished. I’ve got three to complete though, one for each household, so am typing out the information, printing it out and stapling it in on each page. Then I’ll be handwriting a covering letter for each book.

Of course they might not be interested, but I wish I’d had something like this from my grandparents.

As a family we all write thank you letters.
I have a letter my now 25 year old son wrote from school, it said “ Dear Mum and Dad they are making me write to you, I am fine.

I still write letters. One friend in England loves getting them. I have letters from as far back as 1970. There's something really nice about receiving a letter in the post.

Greyduster your grandson sounds like a lovely person.

Not long before my mother died she told us she had burned all her letters from my father.
They wrote to each other every day they were apart during her nursing training, her 18 months in a TB sanatorium then 6 years of wartime.
What she didn’t burn were several years of diaries kept during those same years. She recorded the letters she wrote and received and there were 3, 4 or 5 each and every day.
I wrote lots of letters before emails and Messenger but don’t write many now.

I do admire anyone who writes a diary every day. I often start the year with one but fail to keep it up.