love letters

The other night I did pictures for a military spouse.  Her husband is currently deployed, so she wanted to do something to surprise him.  I had come up with an idea for a picture, but given that most anymore rely on technology, I wasn't sure if she would have what was needed for the picture. 

I sent her an email with the rough idea for my picture and she said that wouldn't be a problem.  This picture was going to require a letter.  With all the different forms of communication that are out there, the handwritten letter is something that is not seen very much anymore whether in the form of military love letters or just a simple thank you to someone.

This spouse told me that although they skype and email back and forth, she writes him at least a short handwritten letter everyday.  During my husband's most recent deployment, he was able to get a cell phone where he was, but we never used Skype and often times there was minimal to no signal at the remote sites he was at most of the time.  For us, the handwritten letter was our primary form of communication.

This made me think of a couple things.  The first is the box of letters that carry with them a little bit of the dirt from where we were at in that moment, they carry a little bit of our smell and on some there are small spots of either sweat or tears depending on what was in the letter.  That is something you won't ever get in an email.  My second thought was thinking back to the wives and mothers of wars past, who had nothing more than snail mail as a way to keep in touch with their soldier. 

The second thought has come to me many times as I wonder how many of us would survive as military spouses if we had nothing more than that one tie to our soldier.  Or sending them off not having even a rough timeframe on when they would be coming home.  In a day where casualties are a fraction of what they were years ago and where technology has protected our soldiers in ways not even imagined in the past, it's easy to forget how difficult it was years ago. 

I guess for me, sitting down and writing my husband when he is gone is a way to send a little bit of me to him in the form of seeing my handwriting and maybe catching a slight scent of me.  For us, this form of communication that is often looked at as ancient or a way of the past, is the main thread that binds us when he is away. 

Photos for Soldier (http://photosforsoldiers.com) is an organization that provides free photo sessions and a CD of all the pictures at no charge to deploying service members and their families.