Dear Lola Conchita, ’yours is the kind of love that’s secure and selfless’
Separated by an ocean, Arvin Joaquin found comfort in his grandmother’s letters. Now, he’s sending her one of his own.
Before you go
A woman to her sister with cancer: ’For now, I thank God you are here today’
Your public persona was ‘Madame Ambassador,’ writes Verla Chatsis to her sister. ‘To us, you are Deb, the little sister I still long to protect.’
Dear Dad: ’Our travels led us to unusual places where we found beauty in the unexpected’
For Michael Gunther, road trips with his father, who now has Alzheimer’s disease, were never really about the destination
Dear Mom, ’I am nothing like you,’ I once thought to myself
’I resented the mother you became, never seeing that perhaps you were the mother I needed you to be,’ writes Monica Bobbitt
To a beloved mother-in-law: ‘It’s my turn to be strong for you’
Before You Go: ’Thank you for being such a loving matriarch to our family,’ writes Ingrid Littmann-Tai in a letter to her mother-in-law with dementia, her children’s Nai Nai
Dear Mom: ’Please forgive me, I forgive you’
Before You Go: In this letter, Ellie Parks reflects on her mother’s life, the labels she wore—orphan, domestic violence survivor, bipolar mood disorder patient—and lessons she imparted along the way
Dear Abu: ‘You’ve never been able to read my work, but I know you are proud of me’
Before You Go: Journalist Haroon Khalid writes a letter to his father, who doesn’t speak English, on the heartbreak of their language divide and what brings them together regardless of it
To my teacher and friend: Despite everything, your guidance never wavered
"Though cancer stole any chance of us working as colleagues, you continue to be an inspiration," writes Matthew Pearson in this letter to his former teacher Mary McGuire
A letter to my first mother: You did not raise me but I consider you my mother still
‘I now realize I was never unwanted, but rather imperfectly loved by imperfect people,’ writes Brittany Penner to her birth mother
Dear mom: ’Now you have stomach cancer, and not much time left. Still, you’re not afraid of dying.’
’You told me that you’re taking this one last journey into what Shakespeare called the “undiscovered country” in his play Hamlet. Mom, you remain an inspiration to me until the end.’