THE COMMUNICATOR
By the time you read this column, the Aer Lingus flight carrying my daughter Lulu and me should have landed in the United States.
“When was the last time you saw your family in person?” a neighbour asked as I packed over the past week. Our suitcases had sat, untouched, in the shed in our back garden for so long that when I retrieved them, I literally wiped away cobwebs.
“It’s been nearly two years,” I said . “My last trip to the US was in September 2019 for my niece’s wedding in Cleveland. We joined my parents, my brother, my step-brother and his family, my sister and her family and a veritable assortment of friends. Back in the day of big gatherings.
“This August, we’re planning a family reunion. It will be extra special because my niece is now four months pregnant!”
As countries open up and many of us are fully vaccinated, I’m sure there are plenty of plans, like ours, to travel. Whether somewhere across Ireland or even farther afield, it’s time to take a break. A summer holiday. Time to close our laptops. Silence our phones. Venture out of our work-from-home homes. We deserve to confidently disconnect.
For most of us, who have been relying heavily on digital communications over these locked-down months, we now have the opportunity this summer to communicate in that wonderfully old-fashioned way: in person. We still might not shake hands but, perhaps, if we’re both wearing masks and vaccinated, we can hug.
We have an opportunity to stay connected to the people we leave behind while we travel in another old-fashioned form of communication. In addition to posting photos on social media for all to see, I want to urge you to pick up a pen and write a letter. Gasp! If the thought of filling a page with prose leaves you reaching for your phone and closest text app or string of emojis, you can take a baby step and write an old-fashioned postcard instead.
No matter what size the missive, let’s agree that emails, Whatsapps and other forms of digital messages, are no substitute for putting pen to paper.
“There’s been a reawakening of the physical,” said Anna McHugh, An Post’s head of communications.
I spoke with her during our last big holiday season, Christmas.
Back then she said, “There’s been a dramatic increase in personal mail this Christmas like we’ve never seen before here in Ireland and internationally. Not only the massive increase in parcels and care packages but a return to the written word. Everyone knows how they feel when they receive the tangible nature of what makes us human.”
That’s as true for us now as then. A social media post may make us feel a certain way but receiving a letter (or post card) in the mail, is something we can certainly feel.
“I remember when my granny would receive a letter from her family in America,” my beau Damien O’Reilly said.
He’s also the presenter of the RTÉ Radio 1 programme CountryWide, and explained that three of his granny’s siblings emigrated to the United States during the 1930s.
“Living in rural Cavan, Granny didn’t have a phone until the 1980s, so getting a letter was a big deal. I remember the envelopes with their navy blue and bright red edges signifying airmail. She would call us all into the kitchen where she would put on her glasses and read the letter aloud. I can even hear her imitating her sister Manie’s voice.”
For that reason alone, when you write, aim to craft your words the same way you speak. Take your time. Make sure your personality and sense of humour ring through in a conversational style.
“A letter is like a present. You can share it. You can re-read it,” Anna told me.
In fact, Damien’s dad Paddy recently re-read the letter his mother (Damien’s granny) wrote to her American-based sister Manie announcing his birth back in 1940.
When you look at the letter, you can receive an impression of the person who held the pen all those years ago.
There are delicate swoops and distinctive tilted strokes. No two people’s handwriting is the same. For instance, there’s a curlicue embellishment on the capital “D” in her salutation, “My Dearest Manie”. There is also quite a bit of spacing between her words.
You can even imagine how she must’ve thought as she rotated the page and wrote her goodbyes in the margin – sideways.
This letter has outlived its writer and stands the test of time for her family as a wonderful study of her style and character during a significant time in her life.
“A cousin found the letter in Manie’s house and sent it back to us. It was written just three days after my dad was born and is completely irreplaceable,” Damien said.
We’re traveling to create memories, aren’t we? So, too, can composing a keepsake of a letter (or post card) to relate your experiences to someone. Don’t re-open your laptop to type and print it or type and hit the send button. Craft a note by hand. Pop it in the post.
Make your moments a memento to remember forever.