Yes, that is what they called us at the station for years when Love Letters Live was on the radio. The two of us, the Love Letter Squad. We are together again, Tresa and I, for this conversation about writing love letters to the dying and to those people we love who have left this earth and sometimes left us with a heartful of things unsaid.
“I never got to tell her how much I loved her,” “I never got to say goodbye.” Two of the most avoidable sadnesses of all. Avoidable with the magic wand at your fingertips. Oh, yes, how often do people say they wish they had a magic wand? I hear it a lot. Well, you have one. At your fingertips. It is, of course, your inelible-ink pen that you pair with good paper to write a letter to someone who only days or weeks away from death. The magic of ths wand? It will, if you use it, free you from the sadness that you never got to (fill in the blank) becasue you will tell that person exactly how much you loved him or her, how much that person gave to you in life and you will get to say a beautiful goodbye. Listen to one of the most powerful goodbye’s in Tresa’s letter to a friend who was dying.
As for writing to the already deceased, death is no reason to end a conversation. Karen Moss Hale of Newclevelandradio wrote one recently to her dear-departed mother that is a tutorial all its own. For that heartful of things unsaid? You can still say them. Where to mail this love letter is a whole other piece of detective work. I invite you to listen to the conversation with Tresa and hope it will encuorage you to write those letters. It is, contraty to what you might think, a very cheerful undertaking. We know this from not only our own experiences with it but from the workshop we led on exactly that project.
How many of those love letters ended up being the eulogies is heartwarming. Yes, people hope to be remembered as their best selves. You can help. Take a look at our newclevelandradio youtube and see Tresa read that letter to her dying friend. Get the usual box of Kleenex to prepare for tearing up.
