Extraordinary Stories From An Ordinary Guy: The "When You Care Enough To Send Your Very Best" Story

It was an ordinary day. Mail just arrived and when my wife handed me a few pieces of mail, I was greeted with one of the most interesting and neat pieces of mail. My daughter-in-law's mother had made me a hand-made "Thank You" card, thanking me for framing a few hand-made "Diamond Painting" pieces of artwork that her daughter, my daughter-in-law's sister, had recently completed.

Joy, the daughter who had completed the paintings, sent me a message inside the card that her mother had made which told me how much she loved it and how she was shocked by having them framed. She ended her note with ... "They are beautiful," thank you. Love, Joy. I enjoyed doing the framing and was lucky enough to have a few frames in my workshop that looked great with the "Diamond Painting" works she had done. But, what impressed me the most was the fact that Etta, my daughter-in-law Barbara's mother, took the time to make the really neat hand-made card in return. About a week prior I had recently received an email with a "Thank You" attached for doing the job, which I also enjoyed, but the card means so much more. Have you ever seen the Hallmark advertisement in which they show someone opening a card that had come in the mail with a "Thank You" message? The person receiving the card loved it and then you heard..."When you care enough to send the very best!" Well, it really is true! As I recently read in The Saturday Evening Post, there's no warmth in a digital greeting, whereas a handwritten and addressed card or letter can lift the spirits and bring a special joy. How true! How many of you have ever sent your sweetheart an email and later had wished you had purchased a romantic card and mailed that to the person instead. No matter how many emoji hearts and kisses you may attach, it's still not the same as a hand-written note inside a greeting card with a few XXXXs and OOOOs attached, by hand. Actually it's much the same with Christmas greeting cards when you receive a hand-made and hand-lettered card. It means so much more than a digital greeting, and so much more than a purchased Christmas card. One of my wife's best friends, Margaret, always sends us a hand-made Christmas card as well as hand-made cards for other occasions. It is just one of the special cards that we received that I will remember more than any of the card-bought cards.

Christmas Greeting from former student
and friend, Steve and his wife Pat.

The other card that we received came from a former student of mine whom celebrated his 50th High School Class Reunion this past year and instead of the traditional Christmas greeting card, sent a 5" x 7" card telling about his family with photos of all his children and grandchildren. Wow, we loved it! Now, I must admit that I never send hand-made cards to friends, but at least we send cards and not digital greetings. They just have no warmth and meaning as far as I'm concerned. Perhaps you disagree, and that's fine, but I won't give up "Thank You" notes sent through the mail instead of via my computer. I always have a sheet of stamps in my top desk drawer and quite a few "Thank You" cards that I took the time to buy and keep just in case I need one. Now, if only I had a good cursive handwriting technique I could use instead of printing all the time. Oh, Well! You can't have everything. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.