photo credit: JFabra via photopin cc
For your weekend relaxing pleasure, I share with you a fantastic podcast on CBC Radio program DNTO (Definitely Not the Opera) where host Sook-Yin Lee explores the stories of letters that changed people. Soooooo good!
Grab a cuppa coffee (tea for me) and settle back and enjoy.
Do you have a memorable letter that you would never part with? Maybe it changed your life in some way?
P.S. I can’t decide which snippet on the program is my favorite—the business man on the plane beside an autistic girl or the boy trying to outwit the tooth fairy…
Oh yes, I had pen pals from all over the world when I was a child. We world share tales about school, the holidays we went on and ask each other questions about what life was like in their country. Not only did we share the joy of letter writing but we learnt alot from each other. We would exchange small gifts at christmas and birthdays. Just something small like a pocket diary or a cool pen! Sadly once we became teenagers, we had more pressing matters like youth club and boyfriends and the letter writing fizzled out.
As for my boyfriend, he’d love for me to throw out his ’embarrasing’ love letters sent to me while I was visiting my parents or friends abroad back in the day. Phone calls were expensive and had to be kept short, and the fact that he sent me three letters in one week was proof that he cared and missed me even if he didn’t say it out loud!
Janine, clearly you are a pen pal extraordinaire! So much fun and what a learning experience too. Throw out your love letters, he says?! Never. Glad you are sticking to it. So appreciate you sharing your story with us. Talk soon I hope.
Ah, letters.I have a bag full of letters spanning decades. Letters from childhood pen pals, letters from my boyfriend who 14 years later I’m still with and letters from my Mum. The letters from my Mum are the ones I’ll never part with. There were times when I was miles away, at college, feeling alone and overwhelmed and a letter from my mum would arrive, reminding me that no matter what, I have her love and support. They were letters of encouragement and excitement for what the future holds. I would re read them and be comforted in the knowledge that she supported me in everything I did, and she still does today.
Bags of letters?! Do tell me more Janine. Can’t believe you have bags, what treasures and memories no doubt. So special that your Mum wrote you at just the right time. Mum’s have that uncanny 6th sense about them, don’t they? So lovely to be able to reread and cherish her all over again. Thanks so much for sharing this story with us. Hope to see you again some time. Lovely of you to have stopped in for a visit.