while at work last week, my husband spotted a purse lying in the middle of the road. he pulled over to get it and in it he found a white folded up hanky, an eyeglass case, a shoe horn and wallet along with the owner's id and $46 cash. the purse clearly belonged to an elderly woman. he was finishing his route at work and on his way home, so he called her to inform her that her purse had been found and to figure out a way to get her purse back to her. since she lives a good hour away from us, it was decided that the best choice would be to mail it. she thanked him immensely and told him how appreciative she was of his good deed.
we mailed the purse the following day, and before she even had a chance to receive the purse we soon received this typewritten letter in the mail...
it read:
Dear Bryce,
I want to sincerely thank you for your honesty and for the immediate action you took in informing me that my purse had been found.
I have always believed there are exceptional people in this world and I was selected today to make your acquaintance via phone. The information you gave me relieved my mind considerably as you can imagine. I shall NEVER forget this day.
I trust you have no difficulty mailing the item back to me. I shall write you again shortly since my husband who is a retired Chief of Police, would like to thank you as well.
Sincerely,
Jane
as we both read the carefully typed out letter exhibiting the perfect imperfections that only a true typewriter could create, we couldn't help but sense her deep genuine gratitude. gratitude that too often these days, is overlooked and therefore not often given. how wonderful were the days of formality, appreciation, passion, integrity, and respect. we had no problem returning her belongings, and would hope that another would do the same had it happened to us, but her letter was unexpected and caught us off guard. and the realization of her sincere gratitude reminded us of the power of simple actions like taking the time to say "thank you" and "you're welcome". our lives are often too busied and rushed to express simple gratitude and appreciation and maybe even assumptions are made that the gratefulness is sensed, and therefore no need to be spoken. i prefer the former days and this letter is cause for me to strive to be more polite, kind, genuine, and more expressive of my gratitude to those around me.
so, miss jane... who ever you are, i thank you for reminding me of the good ol' days and i, too, shall NEVER forget this day.
5 comments:
dear d.,
i wish i had my very own typed thank you letter, from my very own ms. jane. i, too, miss the days of yore, of dresses and perfectly coiffed hair, of playing cards in bike spokes, of letting the kiddos roam free around the neighborhood willy nilly. however, i really love me some taco bell. and some internet. i couldn't give up those.
hugs and kisses,
sar
dear sarah,
i agree, days of yore with internet and taco bell would be perfect.
sincerely,
d
p.s. oh, and ipods and cell phones, or in your case iphones.
You shood have given da purse to me! I like taco bell to, but it gives me da runs. Me tum tum tarts to hert.
How nice of Bryce! We need to get together!
That totally reminds me of my grandpa- he typed letters to everyone...and when computers were just starting to get big he would always make us birthday cards!!
I too am thankful for tbell and iphones (especially when picking people up from the airport- how did they ever do it before!!?) but LOVED good old fashioned snail mail. However, I HATE cursive writing and wish everything was written manuscript.
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