I don't have any "love letters" from DH, but have post cards he sent to me we were newly dating and he was on an extended trip on his DF's boat. They were gone for a month or so and he wrote me quite a few post cards. I guess he may have mailed a couple at a time when they docked in a port with mailing facilities? My FIL loves to find out of the way places in the Caribbean where there are few if any other boaters, tourists or people for that matter.

I am married to a man of few words, but you would never know it from the post cards. The writing was so small in order to fit as much as possible on the cards. LOL

While the post cards don't qualify as love letters, I treasure them as they absolutely define the term "absence makes the heart grow fonder".

I think it was the historian Doris Kearns discussing how historians were lamenting the loss of the written word. Googling your research isn't as interesting or romantic as discovering old manuscripts or letters.

Love songs count as love letters in this house!
♫

I bet you really treasure those Terriks, very special indeed. When email & Instand messengers first came out and started getting popular in the late 90's, I was amazed at the concept and loved talking to people all over the world. Our circumstances are a little unconventional, but I can't help but be soooo thankful for what the internet has done for us because we met on an instant messenger program (ICQ) while he was living in Sweden. After a couple of months of emailing and instant messenger conversations, we spent 1000-1200/mo on phone bills for about 6 months. When we decided he should come for a visit, he arrived and never left. We were married 3 months later and it's been over 10 yrs now. I still have several things he sent me during that time as well as print outs of some of our conversations but no traditional love letters. :c(

One of the first long adult books that I read to DD as an infant was Love Letters To Ronnie. I loved that book.

I treasure the few love letters that DH has written to me over the years. The best being after an argument after our first born (little stressful). I went for a very extended walk that evening only to return home to the most wonderful letter about how he much he loves my passion. It was scribbled on a piece of notebook paper and folded up the same way a teenager does while sneaking notes in class. It was so spontaneous that I knew he was writing from raw emotion. 6yrs later it's still folded up in a special box on my bedside table that he made for me.

My dad who lives cross country from me writes me father/ daughter love letters, poems and stories. He left when I was very young and were out of touch for many, many years so his letters mean the world to me!

I have postcards from the late 1800's and early 1900's and they are so fascinating to read!

I have mine stashed away in a box on the closet floor. We met briefly one day in New Orleans, exchanged addresses, and our first letters crossed in the mail. For most people that form of communication no longer exists. I'll always treasure the letter dh-then boyfriend wrote to my parents before he'd even met them, telling them how grateful he was to have me in his life. All of those handwritten words are priceless!

Love letters are simply ... well, lovely! I don't have letters, but have kept all of the birthday, anniversary and holiday cards DH has given me, and he's kept the ones from me as well. He texts me several times daily, and I recently told him that he should just pick up the phone and call me instead. His response? "But texting you feels like I'm sending you a love note." I can live with that. :-)

I have love letters from my hubby - from when we were dating. He was away in school. We still do little notes on occasion and hide them for each other to find. He writes me letters occasionally - on special occasions, etc. They are very special indeed. (And definitely a lost art, although I like Jen's sweet texts.)

tina

I still have the love letter where DH asked me to marry him, in writing. (He'd already asked me in person.)

"My love for you has grown into the finest sensation I have ever known." Awwe...

He makes me hand made cards and I consider those love letters too. ..."You are the diamond of my heart." (Hey, he's a jeweler. LOL!)

Oh these stories are sooo sweet! My DH never wrote me a love note. He didn't get me any cards until the recently. I told him that I'd treasure a card HE picked out over any gift, so now he gets me cards AND a gift.

Before I met my DH I had dated a couple of nice guys who lived all over...one in Canada and one from Texas who travelled all over the world for his job. Each of these great guys kept up communication with me (even tho the relationships went no where emotionally) and I loved getting their letters. Some days I'd get mail from all over! I also had a beau who had to move out of state right after we started dating, and he sent me real love letters. I didn't keep any of those after I met DH, saw no need, but kind of wish I had, would have been a nice trip down memory lane.

I've noted this for years - for decades, even. Not just love letters, but any letters. When was the last time you wrote or received a personal letter? Not a postcard, not a fax or email or blog post or text message or wall post, but a handwritten letter?

Way back in 1998 or '99, a time in which email had become the primary form of written interpersonal communication, I, as a joke, wrote a letter to my then-gf, who lived on the opposite coast. It seemed absurd since we were used to our written notes getting sent immediately, to use a communication method which took days to get there. But I realized at the time I had lived my entire life without ever having written a love letter - I came of age too late for that to be common, although I heard lots of stories for older people and in old movies and songs.

The closest I've come to having received a letter in the last 20 years is an email attachment I got about two years ago, from someone asking me to read her thoughts that she had written down. I was expecting a RTF file or a Microsoft Word document when I clicked on that link, but instead it took me to a .JPG of four pages of handwritten notes, written on lined paper in a spiral notebook. It was shocking to read something in her actual handwriting in this day and age, and somehow it packed an emotional wallop just seeing her real handwriting even over a computer screen. I wonder if this will become more common if tablet computers become common (I haven't tried using a stylus with an iPad yet; writing with a fingertip is awkward).

Sometimes I can't even bear to part with my old text messages every time I change cell phones - a problem for those of us that use Verizon or Sprint with their non-GSM phones that don't have swappable SIM cards. I use BitPim for moving my data but it doesn't work with all phones. I want that old text message sent to me from a woman I just met and didn't realize we were about to start a relationship. Likewise for voice mail messages made under the same circumstances - I miss the old days when they were stored to a cassette tape and easily copied if I had something worth saving.

deedee99, I can still play on guitar the love song I wrote for my first real love. I can't sing it anymore though, time has taken a toll on my voice (and it wasn't all that good to begin with).

I am working on an elaborate handmade greeting card, a project planned for last Valentine's day that I scrapped but may reinstate if I can find the time and inclination. Completely custom made from cardstock and art-store supplies. Certain sentiments you just won't find at the Hallmark store, and sometimes I really want her to feel me, and have her know that what she's reading isn't a card I picked up at the drugstore that's just like thousands of others, but something that was made especially for her with all of her favorite colors and textures and scents and artwork, something that is truly the only one like it in the entire universe, just like the girl I'm giving it to.

Here is a link that might be useful: One of these was about me....

There is something sad about spellchecking a love letter before clicking send, these days, isn't it?

Oh you guys! Reading about your love letters, love texts, and love cards makes me realize it's been a while since I received one. Do you think I can DEMAND one from dh? It would prob turn out something like this:
Dear demanding, obnoxious wife.....
lee, that is so romantic. Maybe change up the lyrics and sing to your new love? Or is that like giving someone a used gift? And that love letter is a treasure. Goldust, "You are the diamond of my heart." I am getting vapors!
If are any of you are interested go to the link and hear a love song from dh. He claims every song he writes is not always about ME, just relationships in general.
One of the songs he wrote is You walk the Line. (wonder what I did to cause him to write that one?)

igloo if you are reading this, he is the handsomest one, 2nd from the left on the album cover. I'm still laughing from lasts night wedding post.

Here is a link that might be useful: dh

deedee, you DH *is* handsome! Nice music!

Moms!! I think I figured out a way to keep the letters coming. I've talked about it before. Every time your young kids asks you what you want for that special occasion, tell them you want a letter from them. Heck, I didn't wait for them to ask. When they were young I'd say, " (fill in the blank) is next Tuesday and I expect a letter from you."

I treasure my letters from my kids. Some are hysterical, from when they were young. As they get older, the letters became very sincere and thoughtful.
To this day, I'd rather have a letter from my kids than a trip to Europe.

As for DH making me cards, his father always made his own cards too. We have beautiful Easter, Birthday, etc. cards to the kids from him. It helps to have art talent but it isn't necessary.

I think my kids will always write letters because they started early and now it's a family tradition.

They may be emailed rather than handwritten, but my DH sends me a love letter almost every day so that it's waiting for me when I get up. Some of them are so unexpectedly eloquent that I'm bawling before the end of the letter, since he's not too much into romantic talk, it feels pretty awkward for both of us. I save them and every so often transfer a batch to disks. I send him love letters too, so that he'll get them in the early afternoon which is usually "slump time" at work. Even when we were first dating, the primary form of communication between us when we weren't together was email (and some of the emails that went back and forth would make Dr. Ruth blush *LOL*) and a couple of the instant messaging services. We didn't talk much on the phone because I don't really do phones (and no such animal as unlimited long distance then, either). I have a couple of handwritten letters from him, written on blank House of Blues and IHOP register tape - he used to hang out there drinking coffee and reading for hours on end. Neither of us is really into cards, both of us think they're kind of a waste of money.

Back when numeric-only pagers were the norm, we'd randomly page each other with the code 143, which meant "I love you" (count the letters in each word).

I wrote a LOT of handwritten letters when my younger brother was in the Iraq War (way back when it first started), because they didn't have such niceties as Internet connections and even phones at the time, but mail could get through eventually even to the most remote camps. He didn't write back much, but I kept the few he did send during his year-plus there. My mother and I occasionally exchange snail-mail letters just as a nice little surprise for each other, but both of us have wonky hands and it's getting painful for both of us to write much more than a postcard's worth, so if I want to send a snail-mail letter I have to type it.

What lovely, wonderful, romantic and funny posts here! I've enjoyed reading each one of them. I too wish that were were still letter writers. I treasure and save the romantic notes DH leaves for me, although I don't have any actual love letters. But, he's a romantic affectionate guys and does tell me lovely sweet things every day.

I have to tell you all about the love letters we have between DH's grandparents, though. They were a and very much in love. Sadly though, they both died, tragically, in their early twenties . . . his grandmother first, from influenza. His grandaddy a couple of years later, from a fall off a horse (he was a cowboy in Oklahoma). DH's father was left an orphan at age six. Thankfully, he was brought up by loving relatives . . . but these love letters (and a couple of charming photos) were about the only thing he had to remember his parents by. Now we've been entrusted with them and they are so sweet.

In this digital age of ours, our descendants in generations to come, will have home movies, many many photos and so much more to remember us by . . . but, alas, not too many love letters it seems.
Lynn

Upon reading all of your lovely thoughts, I indeed need to write mine. My hubby of 49 yrs. passed over two yrs. ago and believe it or not, I still have all of the letters and cards that I ever got from him. They started back when he was in the Army in 1958. We started 'going' together back in our Jr. yr. of high school. I don't sit and re-read them but I just know they're in my closet safely with a ribbon adorning them. Also had to laugh about the high school notes, I have those folded pieces also. Someday maybe my children might be interested in reading what he wrote to me, who knows! Don't you just love reading such nice things? I also have a picture that is enlarged to 5x7 on the computer desk here, this was taken when we were in hi school, he's this skinny kid with his arm around my shoulder.....how's that for sweet? There is another one with it taken like 50 yrs. later with his arm around our oldest daughter, so nice to have these memories!!!