The Letter.

A friend, she has no internet, no smartphone, no laptop, no passwords, has never bought anything on-line, does not drive. So, there is no communication with WhatsApp, no Facebook, no Instagram, no Twitter, no group chats, no social media at all! She does have a very VERY old mobile phone. Her phone has no pictures or camera no emojis. It is pay as you go each month.

I am in my 60’s she is well over 20 years older than I. we used to work together, until she retired, because of covid. I was gutted, she was our Best worker. She used to tell me of her life when she was young. It was SO interesting, parts of it were sad, other parts very funny. Her memory was perfect. She had a fantastic sense of humour. She would arrive for work, two hours or more, before she was due to start. She was one of the hardest workers I have ever met, in the whole of my life. She was my favourite person to work with.

We kept in touch, via her mobile phone.

Covid time she was in isolation, as her family that worked, didn’t want her to catch anything, so in the first lockdown, she was on her own, in her home. All she had was them, and myself and her other friends, and her old mobile phone and the telly. So, while we were all in the first lockdown, and passing funny jokes and videos and thing to encourage us, that this would all pass, none of them could be passed on to her, from anyone; because no one had a phone like hers. She has a lot of friends, but they all had smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Thankfully after covid, she did come back to work, for about a year.

Recently, she hadn’t been replying straight away to my texts, which wasn’t like her. She usually answers right away. I felt like something was wrong.

Then last week she told me, “I have written you a letter.” I don’t know when was the last time that I had received a letter. I think it would have been about five to eight years ago, or longer. I replied, “OK.” After 3 days the letter still hadn’t arrived, so I texted her to say, “Your letter didn’t arrive.” She texted to say, “I have, had a lot on my mind, I forgot to post it.”

Her letter arrived today. Some things can’t be put in a text. It was lovely to have her precious letter, I will treasure it always.

I asked Paul, “Have you got a sheet of paper?” He replied, “No.” I wanted to write her back, I looked around the house for paper, I couldn’t find any. No one in our home, writes letters.

Eventually, I found my sons old art book, from the back I tore out a sheet of the thick paper and cut the part where the ring binders were. With her letter in front of me, I replied to her letter. I write a lot at work, and I write a lot in my daily diary at home, but it was very strange writing a letter. Knowing she wouldn’t get it for two to three days. Our world, moves too fast for letters, when a text would do, and arrives immediately.

It was strange to see King Charles on the stamp, the first I have seen it.

I will post her letter tomorrow, first class, registered post.