I visited ' Tante ' Anne a few times while I was in The Netherlands. She lives in the town I grew up in, Gorredijk. For many years we were neighbors, but even after moving to other places, including Canada, we always kept in contact. Tante Anne still lives in the same house in Gorredyk and is in her eighties now. During my early immigration years I wrote many letters to my parents, other family members, friends and also to tante Anne. Tante Anne is very organized, she always was and still is. When Winnie and I visited her she gave me two big packages of letters that I had written to her which she had kept carefully organized year by year. I took them home and I am reading a few of them every day. When I look back I can't believe how many letters I wrote! Writing letters takes a lot of time. Of course there was a reason I wrote so many; I was in a new country, seeing and experiencing many things and wanting to tell the folks back home. Calling home was done only on birthdays or emergencies. I remember that calling Europe in 1978 cost one dollar per minute!! Today we sell phone cards at the Mission (for six dollars) with which you can call for nine hundred minutes. The number one reason I wrote so many letters was, of course, that I hoped to get some letters back. When you live in a new and far a way country you long for mail!
How times have changed! No more letter writing these days. I can't remember the last time I wrote a letter; it must have been years ago. Today we e-mail, call (unlimited) and more often than not, (not me); text, twitter or use face-book.
I've heard that there are people who collect letters - any letter - from any one. Why? They say that letter writing has become a lost art. I remember a professor once explaining that much of history has been written because of letter writing. It's all history! Meanwhile I'll hang on to my letters from tante Anne. Perhaps someday my children and future grandchildren will be interested.
* On the left my oldest sister Margriet and her right tante Anne.
