They say letter writing is a lost art, but not where my cousin and I are concerned. We began corresponding with one another as soon as we learned how to pen the alphabet in the first grade. Our mothers came from a long line of prolific letter writers, and we have continued the tradition.
As children, we wrote of our daily activities, school, friends, pets, and secrets to be kept. It was always a happy day when the mail arrived with a note addressed to me, the envelope decorated with my cousin’s artwork or stickers. As we grew, our letters contained many of those same topics but also more serious ones—such as what major to pursue at college, career choices, and giddy paragraphs describing that special guy we were dating. Proposals of marriage and later the joyous announcements of expected babies were shared via the mail, with the happy response eagerly awaited by return post.
In the half century that we have been corresponding,
