Do you ever hand write letters or know anyone who does?

[Andsthatscat]

Early last year I entered into a new relationship, I met him through a friend and as we are both a bit older (though I wouldn’t say old) we are taking it slow. He is 63, he has one daughter who is 25.
He is not technology averse or bad with technology by any means, he books flights and holidays, tables for restaurants, online banking, will order items online if he can’t source them in person. However he does not text, really at all. He might send a text to a friend if they have plans and he wants to confirm them or if he needs to communicate with a tradesmen doing work or similar, but he seldom texts me or his family. He is happy to call and does if necessary but most of our talking is saved for when we meet up.
In addition to this he still handwrites letters, mostly to his daughter who he writes to once a month but also his brother who doesn’t live locally.
His parents who are in their late 80s also still handwrite letters to his daughter and she replies also with handwritten letters. She lives abroad but does seem to send her replies monthly too.

I feel this is slightly peculiar, he’d be perfectly capable of texting or even emailing if he wanted a longer format but still he and much of his family still seem to enjoy writing letters. He said his reason is that he feels more thought and emotion goes into a letter when you have to take the time to write it by hand and post it.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with this and actually think it’s endearing but I do think it is a tad peculiar and certainly not common.

So AIBU to wonder if anyone here still handwrites letters or knows anyone who does? If you do, why?

I write to my aunt who is 92, and I send postcards when I travel, she does not live near me and enjoys my contacts. She does have an iPhone and iPad so I could text and email her, but I prefer the letter, just seems a bit nicer.

I still have a pen friend, we’ve never met,
since we’ve been writing she’s got married, had 2 kids, we stopped exchanging for a while but started back up again about 6 months ago. We are fb friends too so I’d put any photos there now we don’t get the physical packs of pics from boots to send.

it’s nice sending letters. I also sent one this week to an old neighbour who moved away who included a few bits of news in a Christmas card and as I don’t have a phone number for her and don’t send cards anymore I wrote.

it’s also lovely receiving something that’s not junk or an nhs summons.

I loved writing to people but haven't done so in years. I remember sending aerogrammes to people who lived far away. It seemed so sophisticated.

My mother used to write to several family members a few times a week. That would be expensive nowadays.

There are a couple of people I write to - I like it! I have a full range of modern media at my disposal, so use email, text and WhatsApp, but those two people, who I see very rarely now, I write to. Not often, every couple of months.

Young adult DC handwrite thank you letters for birthday and Christmas gifts. It was drilled into them as a non-negotiable when they were children though so it's probably a hangover from that 😁

I write letters. I text if needed but nothing makes my heart sink faster than sending a text and then seeing "Typing..." immediately pop up. If I write a letter it is long and chatty, whereas a text is the minimum of information. My friends seem to like receiving them and a couple write back. I'm in my 50s if relevant.

DD is at university. We call and message regularly, but I send her a letter (usually a card that's blank inside) around twice a month and she writes back.
I remembered how much I loved receiving 'proper' letters when I was a student and worked abroad in the 80s. I began with DD as soon as she started university.
DD now writes to my DSis and SIL, several friends and even my best friend. She has a collage of them on her wall in her accommodation and says it's a habit she intends to keep and that they always cheers her up.
I was quite surprised stamps are now £1.50 now and am always on the lookout for interesting cards. I think it's worth every penny. I last posted one yesterday.
DD is now studying a Masters in a science subject. She says writing gives her the chance stop, relax and keep the skill. She'd rarely pick up a pen otherwise.

Sounds exactly like DH (age 61). He still writes to a few old friends and always sends beautiful thank you cards for Christmas, birthdays, events. Its lovely.
I used to love waiting for the post and letters from friends. I still have one friend who sends the most wonderful monthly missive. It's a dying art which is sad.

I received a handwritten letter from my sister last year. It really took me back to the past when I Ieft home many years ago.Writing letters and landline phonecalls were the only ways to communicate with my family then.

I quite enjoy reading collections of letters and I suppose that will be a dying, if not dead, genre of literature in the future.

I still write letters to a few people. I love shopping for cards, postcards and writing paper sets. I haven't seen my best friend since primary school for 25 years after she emigrated but we still send each other letters and postcards.

I have a friend who is a farmer. She deals with endless govt & farm admin emaIls. Occasionally we write to each other, take time choosing note paper, or a beautiful card, describe the good or funny things that have happened in our lives. A little bit of civilisation in a mundane day can be very cheering. We've been doing it for years. Nothing wrong with that.

We also text, message, ring each other.

Yes, I do; and with a beautiful fountain pen.
Much less than I used to, partly because it generally takes two to correspond, but hope I always will.
Use email for most things, and landline.
Detest texting; used only for briefest arrangements.
Your boyfriend is not peculier.

I know people who still write letters and I do too sometimes. It’s so much more personal to read someone’s handwriting.

Also I use a fountain pen every day at work. I have written notebooks.

I write a letter inside a Christmas card to my great aunt and a couple of other people. Otherwise no. It is a shame though, I have kept piles of letters from when I was living abroad in the late 90s and from my first year of uni when now DH and I were engaged but living 3 hrs apart. Letters from my now deceased grandparents are the most precious.

Oh I love to receive a proper letter.
I'm older and used to have pen friends as a child. One was a girl who's family emigrated to Australia in 1966 and we still write once a year.
I also exchange letters once a year with a cousin and an old colleague.
Unfortunately due to rheumatoid arthritis I can't actually hand write any more but I do type and print a proper letter when I could easily email or WhatsApp.

I have a huge box of letters my mil and fil wrote to each other during WWII when he was away for 5 years. I haven't read them and probably won't.

I still write letters to a few people who don't use e-mail. I send e-mails, but don't text, other than for brief messages such as 'train delayed' or 'Got home around 8.00. Hope you had good journey home'. I detest the fiddly little on-screen keyboard on a phone.

I still have bags full of letters I received from family and friends pre e-mail. I resist getting them out to read, because I know once I start it will consume the whole day.

Historians and biographers of the future won't have the letters and diaries that historians studying the 20th century and earlier have. Same with photographs. How many people actually curate and organise their digital photos and make arrangements for what will happen to them?

My 10 year old dd writes to her friends! I haven’t done for a few years but it’s a lovely thing.

I found before Christmas that one can't buy nice sets of writing paper and envelopes any more. I wanted to give some to a fellow letter writer. I suppose it's available online, but the postage would be quite high.

A box of writing paper and envelopes used to be a good alternative to bath stuff if you wanted to give a present.

I still write to old school friends and distant relations who I've not met in person for decades. They likewise write back. I really don't like personal texts/emails for anything more than quick confirmations of dates/times or quick "catch up", i.e. a quick "how are you". I think text/email is too impersonal for any decently long communications.

I'm still in written communication every few months with a friend from primary school, and I'm 60 and not seen her face to face for 30 years. Over that time we've both got married and had kids (we both managed long journeys to each other's weddings), she moved abroad twice, got divorced, now living with a new partner, her kids are now married and she's got a couple of grandchildren. We're still "best friends" as we know everything about each other's lives, and if we met up, we'd go straight back into being best friends as we were decades ago. We both write relatively long letters to each other, plus Xmas and birthday cards including a long personal letter and we still send photos of family and family occasions etc to each other. We never text nor email, I don't know her mobile number nor email address, and we aren't "friends" on any social media. All our communication is by hand written letters. It makes our distant friendship feel special - a lot more special than if we'd stopped writing and just kept in touch by random texts or emails!!

I also hand write other letters, such as letters upon bereavements, births, marriages, etc of distant friends and family, even where we do have text/email conversations otherwise.

I love writing, and have several lovely ink fountain pens that I used in several different colours, along with some very "posh" writing paper.

My best friend and I have both spent our lives traveling the world for work, living in various countries but never the same one at the same time. We've always kept in touch by letter.

We're both retired now and living about an hour apart in the West country and still write to each regularly. We meet up once a month and use other methods of communication but old habits die hard. The pleasure of receiving a hand written letter never fades. You can sit with a cuppa or glass of wine and savour it.

Also, writing a letter is an art. It's not dashing off a few lines where you can delete or cut and paste. You have to plan it. I often plan my letter whilst I walk the dog or do the washing up. It's a lovely way to stay in touch.

I guess it will probably die out with my generation.

I've been getting rid of unnecessary paperwork over the last few months. The last lot to go through is the letters pile, which I was going through earlier today. Reading some of those letters took me right back to the times they were written, what was going on in my and the writers' lives, what was going on in general. Some bits were hard to read, some made me laugh out loud. They've stayed in my thoughts as I've gone about my business today.

If we only communicate via screens we will have nothing to reminisce over with a cup of tea on a wet Saturday morning, thirty years hence.

You've made me reminisce about my teens and early twenties, when letter writing was still "n" and i exchanged letters with my friends - some of whom lives 20+ miles way, and sometimes when we went to university. My parents wrote to me there too, even though we also spoke on the phone. I bet I have cleared them out and I'm sad about that.

I don't write proper letters any more, but I do try to send a notecard or postcard every now and again. Partly it's sharing handmade cards to my friends who are also art and crafty and who will appreciate them, and partly just because those who I occasionally send a nice notelet to appreciate getting something nice through the post every now and again. It's only reciprocated by a few of them, but I get why it's not more of them and I don't mind - it's a dying art, and who really has the time to buy a nice notecard, write it, buy stamps and remember to go to wherever there is a post box? However, I have decided to still try to continue to send every now and again, just because I enjoy making people's life slightly brighter. I avoid resentment by not making myself write long newsy content and by being deliberately inconsistent and only sending when I fancy doing it.

I have tried to be better at sending birthday cards too, as that feels like a dying art and it's nice to get them. I get VERY few of those, and not from friends who I don't see in person. I do think that's a bit of a shame.

My mum - late 70s, still exchanges letters with her school and college friends. It's in addition to phone calls. I think it's lovely.

Gosh yes, I remember writing paper sets. I had a floral one, and one with a little labrador puppy in the top corner!

My dad's cousin worked in some kind of publisher/printing company, and they would make the offcuts into writingpads, the type that was glued on one edge. For decades my family sent letters written on very distinctive (to me) lavender coloured sheets!

My handwriting was always too big for the A5ish size of letter paper. Though getting multiple pages of a letter was always a delight!

Do you remember when making your own in Microsoft.. Word? Publisher? was suddenly all the rage? Printed out cards that were sheets of A4 folded, too,

I guess if you fancy doing so, making your own writing paper on Microsoft and printing it on some nice paper with matching envelopes would still be a very welcome gift.

@OuchAndAbout . Your hand made cards must make receiving one of your letters really special. I have a friend who always makes me a birthday card and it's without fail my favourite.