I received a letter from my mum today. I admire her strength because even though she has rheumatoid arthritis she still writes and sends me letters every now and then. There’s been very little communication between my mum and me for years because there was no trust. I always felt like I couldn’t honestly say what I wanted to say. I did once tell her how I felt about things after my father passed away and she hung up on me. I tried many times but it doesn’t seem to work so I gave up in a way. What’s the point if someone refuses to listen to you or literally ignore you or what you are trying to tell them?
Ever since I moved to the UK, I have been sending her little surprises, a nicely wrapped gift box with over a hundred pictures in them, I’ve printed them and cut them myself. Each set of pictures wrapped in nice golden tissue paper along with a very long detailed letter. I’ve sent her another parcel on her birthday in February and ordered a book for her which was delivered the next day. So I make sure I’ll send her those little messages of appreciation and I try not to have any expectations in return.
So each time a letter gets in I’m eager to open it and read it. She was very positive in this letter and she told me she was happy with the set of pictures I sent her for her birthday and the beautiful book. She feels lonely ever since my father passed away and is having a hard time moving on, it will be five years ago this October. I can relate to her loneliness and deep down I hope she will find the strength to move on and leave the past for what it is, it is only holding her back and making her feel miserable. I’m not allowed to tell her, it upsets her.
So whenever I write her back I always emphasise her strength, because I do admire her strength. I guess she is just too insecure to realise what power she holds within. So I won’t stop sending her little tokens of love and appreciation, no matter what she does with them. Hopefully one day she will be able to set her self free from her past and everything related to that so she can enjoy life as it is… and truly live.
Tag Archives: Letter
The Letter
I’ve received a really cool letter from the Lowlands yesterday! Awesome! It came from my ex colleague [Gerrit Rietveld Academy] and friend Christiaan. I can’t explain what it means to me because some of you out there reading these lines probably won’t have a clue what I’m talking about but let me give it a try and let me explain my sentiment… If you still don’t understand then leave a comment for me to answer…
I’m a graphic designer [and multimedia designer] for 18 years already. When I started to learn how to produce camera ready artwork at some advertising agency 18 years ago, there was no such thing as a computer for design, print work or digital printing etc. I had to produce each and every brochure, leaflet, business card, poster, annual report-layout [etc.] manually: spending time in the darkroom producing raster images and at the drawing board, waxing and cutting text on paper output, placing all the elements on the layout, using registration and crop marks. Office automation had only just started and I was the first to learn at that advertising agency, on one of the first Apple Macs…
Typesetting [presentation of textual material in graphic form on paper or some other medium] was still a proper profession at print shops. This was all, way before desktop publishing became more popular for publishing than typesetting and the olden days things started to vanish… Anyway, the envelope that I got from Christiaan is one that he printed himself in 1976. 1976! I was still a girl drawing pictures and gazing out of windows catching a glimpse of some bug flying about. Living in my own little world not knowing what I would become later… [I actually wanted to become a nurse *I hear you think*]
So it has value to me because it’s old, it’s Christiaan’s and he designed and printed it himself, typesetting and not using some fancy CPU. Getting his fingers dirty with ink, the real deal! It’s only a vague memory to me since I found myself on the edge of transformation back then when I started my career. I have done the manual stuff but for two years or so before agencies slowly started to convert to computers. But the smell of ink and the sound of a Heidelberg is something you’ll never forget!
Thanks Christiaan for sending me something truly special!!! What a lovely surprise… 
