This summer I read Veronique’s post, Just A Small Town Girl, and smiled as I always do at her lovely doodles. But there was one that thing caught my eye and brought a lump to my throat. It featured a hand drawn stamp and the words, Post Air Mail. And it hit me. I hadn’t had any real mail from anyone (not including the odd birthday or Christmas card) not since my mum passed back in 1999.
This sent a shiver down my spine not just because that was over 20 years ago, but because it was the last handwritten letter I ever got … from a dead woman; my mother.
Wherever I was in the world, travelling and or working, my mother religiously took time out of her day to write an aerogramme to me. Do you remember those? You buy them at any post office, singularly or in packs. I think my mother had a draw full of them—after all, she had six kids and if she wrote to me, you can be sure as hell, she wrote to us all at some point or other.
The thing is. The last piece of mail she wrote to anyone, was to me. She wrote to me, as she always did, on a Friday, so she could catch the last post. That last letter she wrote, was duly posted on a Friday and, would you believe, the following Monday, here in Quebec, I got two shocks.
The first came very early Monday morning when my brother Neil phoned me from the UK to tell me the devastating news. My mother, who had had a stroke Sunday and been rushed into hospital, had died from a further massive stroke in the small wee hours of Monday morning.
I think I collapsed into a chair unable to move let alone speak, as I handed the phone to my partner. I was at their parents house, visiting. I don’t remember much after that. The day was mostly a fog, as I tried to get my head around the fact my mother was gone, and that I’d never see her again, let alone hear her voice.
While I was trying to process this someone in the family had gone out to the mailbox up the road, and brought back the family mail along with the usual flyers. In there was that familiar light blue of a flimsy aerogramme. Someone handed it to me and I remember staring at it for a good few minutes.
It was then that the dam burst, and I sobbed like I have never sobbed before. I was holding a letter from a dead women, written not a few days before her passing.
It took me several days before I would open the letter to read my mum’s last words to me. A letter I still have to this day, a treasure worth more than any amount of money. And yes, I’m quietly crying as I type up this post to share with you, not in sadness, but in joy. Joy that I got something most people never get when they lose a loved one like this. I got her last words to me, forever enshrined in a letter. However simple those words might be, talking about her day, as if we were sat together on the couch drinking a cuppa.
Thank you for that, Mum, you will never know how much those last few words have meant to me over all these years, and how in my own difficult times. They have helped lift me when I needed them the most. And yes, I still miss you, mum.
NaBloPoMo: 3/30
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Oh what a shattering day. I am very sorry.
But at the same time I totally understand the treasure your received. But still what a timing.
I’ve only received one or wo of those letters with the flimsy paper. But I remember the time when you had to put sticker on saying airmail. I wrote so much that the person at the post office handed me a whole role. I still have some left.
It was both heartbreaking and then, later, once I realised the gift I had been given, it was heartwarming too. BUt yes, what timing.
Oh, I remember the Par Avion stickers well, I use to carry a roll as well with me all over the place because I wrote so many aerogrammes to family and friends.
No mail in 25 years?! What? That’s not okay! If you send me your snail mail address, you’ll get an occasional postcard or letter from me, I promise! It’s one of my favorite things to do.
I did use to get email, but no, not actual snail mail. My mother’s letter was the last piece of physical mail I ever got.
And yes, I would love to swap the occasional letter and or postcard with you. What a wonderful idea. I’ll check your contact page (If you have one).
Sad but lovely written!
I love happy mail, so I make sure I get some by swapping with people from all over the world, esp. the handmade kind. But I still have my mom and I am grateful every day these days. When I was younger, not as much, LOL.
Thank you. I think everyone, if they’re honest, loves getting snail mail. It’s wonderful that you still write and receive letters. Especially those from your mother. I don’t think we realise just how much of a treasure they are.
Oh, what a bitter-sweet, heartbreaking but also uplifting story. Thanks for sharing, Alex. I am so sorry about how you lost your mom so suddenly, but also so delighted that you received her aerogramme (I remember those!) as her parting gift. What a treasure.
I used to write letters all the time… emails and blogging have taken over to connect with people but I still love sending snail mail. If you’d share your address, I would also love to drop something in the mail for you. Quite a few bloggers in our community also love the ‘written word on paper’ and are good at sending snail mail, so if that is something you’d be interested in, just let us know 🙂
It was heartbreaking but yes, at the same time, I got a gift so many of us never get, a last word from a parent. We don’t often get to have treasures like that in our lives.
Oh, and you too are another letter writer? I think we have enough of us here to set up our own club. And yes indeed, I would love to swap letters with you and anyone else who would be interested.
I’ll check to see if you have a contact form and send you my snail mail address.
Thank you for sharing this memory with us! That must be a truly a treasured gift this last mail.
I still have one friend I write snail mail with so I get a letter from her every so often and I love the feeling when it arrives.
There’s something heartwarming about getting mail through the post, it’s especially uplifting when it’s from a close friend or family. Treasure them.
Wow, that is very special that you got that letter from your mother after she passed. My Mom also writes handwritten letters a lot and although I have decluttered basically everything, that is something that I have saved over the years! Those letters are so special, just as you say, like you are there with her, having a cup of coffee and hearing about her day. I love it.
Oh, you too? We definitely have a writers club going on here. And how lovely that you too have so many treasures to keep from your mother. You’ll appreciate them so much more later, when you still have the wonderful connection with her. Keep them safe.