Letters to Elders

True confession about how I choose a topic for these All About Seniors columns. First of all I pray and ask God to give me a column that is God-honoring, truthful, encouraging, timely, pertinent to seniors, and humorous if appropriate. Then I sit down with a pen and blank paper and brainstorm whatever comes into my head. If none of the brainstorm topics seem right, sometimes I turn to the National Holiday Calendar which is how I chose this week’s column: Wednesday, February 26th is designated “NATIONAL LETTER TO AN ELDER DAY”. Here’s a brief history of how this designation came to be…

Love for Our Elders founded National Letters to an Elder Day in 2020 to encourage handwritten letters to elders all across the country. The story begins with a young boy and his grandpa. When Jacob Cramer lost his grandfather, he began to volunteer at a local senior living community as a way of honoring his memory. The residents lovingly referred to him as “Bingo Boy” because of his entertaining and lively way of calling the community’s bingo game (a much-heated affair, he’s sure to tell you). While volunteering, Jacob discovered that many of the residents rarely received messages or visitors from family and friends and that loneliness was a chronic and ever-present problem.

So Jacob decided to start writing letters of love to senior communities; quickly, his moniker changed from Bingo Boy to Letter Boy. He found grace and love in his relationships with his friends in the senior community and eventually decided to take his letter-writing efforts national. Jacob created a nonprofit that urged people to write letters to elders (or anyone else in need who are older than them) and facilitated the delivery to seniors worldwide. Since 2013, Jacob and his team have amassed an army of 50,000+ letter writers worldwide.

How many handwritten letters do you receive? If you’re anything like me, you get tons of email and even more junk mail but almost zero real handwritten mail… an actual letter that someone wrote with a pen and paper and sent with a real stamp. But if I do get one, it’s the first piece of mail I open that day because somebody cared enough to actually write me!

Which brings me to the same point that young Jacob Cramer came to when he worked to get LETTERS TO AN ELDER DAY recognized as a National Day on the calendar. So what should we do about it and why? I’d say the most logical thing is to take about a piece of paper a pen an envelope and a stamp and make a list of elders that we could write to and bless today with the simple act of writing a letter. And the best part is that you can do it from the comfort of your home no matter what the weather is outside and it will only cost you the price of a stamp.

One other thing too: It’s Biblical. Jesus’ brother, James, said it was in the New Testament book he wrote in chapter 1, verse 27 where he said “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” By writing that letter you’ll be blessing a widow and unspotting yourself by pulling away from all the bad news on that big TV that takes so much of our time as seniors.

Now I can just hear some of you saying, “Why should I write a letter? I’m a senior myself (as most of this column’s readers are), someone should be writing me!” A wise person once said “The best way to get a friend is to be one!” I suspect the same holds true. The best way to get a letter is to write one. Don’t you?

Well just before I sign off for this week, I’d like to remind you that the Perry Players are into their second week of their live performance of a delightful musical called “BIG FISH.” You can still get tickets online at https://www.onthestage.tickets/show/perry-players-community-theatre/674ce4f4a416990f67c804f8; better hurry though, the last performance is March 2nd. My wife and I went this afternoon with some friends so I can tell you first hand you won’t be disappointed and you’ll be supporting some very talented and dedicated artists and neighbors from right here in Middle Georgia.

Thanks for reading All About Seniors… see you next week!

Bill Milby is a Director of Visiting Angels® of Central Georgia, a non-medical, living assistance service for seniors. If you have questions or comments about this column you can reach him at william.mercylink@gmail.com or search for us at  https://www.facebook.com/VisitingAngelsofCentralGA