Column -- Letters Live On

Hope Kettelkamp isn't giving up on the written word.

“So few handwritten letters come in my mailbox, however, I keep writing to my large family anyway,” the Marion woman wrote to me in gentle pen strokes on a piece of hummingbird stationary. “And when one of them writes me, it is a joyful day!”

I wrote earlier this month about the decline of letter writing in an age of rapid-fire communication. But it turns out, like Hope, many of you are still determined to put pen to paper. Evidence of your commitment is pil ing up on my desk. I received 20 letters.

Many are a testament to the power of writing.

Frances Sessions of Marion told of exchanging letters with her late husband before they were married. He was a logging engineer in Oregon. She was a timber company accountant 95 miles away.

“I learned a great deal about him through his letters, probably a lot more than the ‘shacking-up-toget-acquainted' deals of today,” she wrote. Peg Dvorak of Cedar Rapids said her 42-yearmarriage was sparked by three letters. One to a cousin of the object of her affection, who was serving in the Marines. He got word of how she felt and wrote back. “Letter number three was when I answered back - we were married a year later,” Peg wrote. Others wrote of the bond letter writing forged between generations.

Ruth Neppl of Marion says she was inspired to pen letters by her aunt Mary, who lived to be 107. Now, she exchanges weekly letters with her own daughter. “There is something very personal about selecting the stationary, affixing the stamp, writing the address and putting thoughts on paper,” Ruth wrote.

Patricia Hikiji of Cedar Rapids treasures letters with family recipes from her mother-in-law. “And as I read through the directions, I realized I was hearing, again, my mother-in-law's voice. Her inflections, pronunciations, speech patterns - all there in the handwritten lines on a piece of tablet paper,” Patricia wrote.

Many writers described how letters kept longtime friendships alive. Mary Stallman has been exchanging letters with her childhood friend Rosemary for decades.

“It's such a warm feeling to open the mailbox and find a letter from a good friend,” Mary wrote.

Marlene Lacy in Marion has had that feeling a lot lately. “I recently celebrated 50 years as a practicing R.N. Last week, 101 cards/notes handwritten arrived from friends and co-workers,” Marlene wrote.

Letter writing lives on. Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to write.

» Todd Dorman's column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Contact him at (319) 398-8452 or todd.dorman@gazcomm.com