 When my husband was a young man, he had a summer job as a postie. Each Christmas, the New Zealand Post Office recruited extra staff to cope with the flood of Christmas cards. During December it wasn't unusual to see two posties cycling together along the footpath—one carrying the regular mail, the other delivering Christmas cards. Most adults have spent years opening the letterbox to find bills, bank statements and other routine mail. Today children rarely experience the excitement of finding an envelope with their own name on it. With so much communication now electronic, our grandchildren seldom receive mail through the post. During my research I coined the phrase "Squirrelled-away Love Depositories." I discovered that distance grandchildren and distance grandparents treasure every piece of snail mail they receive. When I interviewed grandparents and adults who had grown up as distance grandchildren, most had letters, cards and postcards carefully stored away. Grandparents, your handwritten words are opened at just the right moment, treasured and filed away in a special place. If you're a distance grandchild, know that any letter, card or postcard you send to a grandparent will be stashed with pride. And if you're an expat or migrant hoping to nurture this tradition with your children, make it easy. Keep postcards, stationery, postage stamps and airmail stickers on hand. The easier it is to write, the more likely it is to become a family habit. In a world of instant messages and disappearing texts, the written word still has unique power. A letter can be read again years later and become a lasting reminder of love that distance cannot diminish. First published in The Westerly
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