Fair warning:  This post is a blatant appeal to your kind hearts for your participation!
card pictures Waiting for God*

Every year on 26th February, Canada observes “National Letter to an Elder Day”.  Everyone is encouraged to hand write, in large, clearly formed letters, a greeting card to the elderly who reside in long term care facilities to brighten their day.  So, at least on that one day, they feel neither forgotten nor alone.  So they feel loved and cherished.

Have you ever visited a long term care home?  It’s daunting and heartbreaking and wrong that so many folks are simply left (most by their own families) in those homes, alone, with few or no visitors.  Warehoused.  Waiting for God.  Their sadness and loneliness are palpable.  At the end of her life, my mum was a resident at The Golden Plough Nursing Home in Cobourg. As LTC facilities go, it was very nice, with pretty gardens, an interior courtyard, kind, friendly staff, plenty of activities and very good food.  Still, the fact remains that many of her fellow residents seldom had visitors, and felt uncherished.  Tell me there is anything more upsetting than that, if you can.  

A not-for-profit group called “Love For Our Elders” started National Letter to an Elder Day and they are committed to defeating loneliness with love.  In communities all across Canada, our help is being sought to send handwritten letters to seniors.  Here in Essex County, our library branches are encouraging their patrons to write friendly, hopeful, loving and positive letters, and then to simply drop them off at any of ECL’s locations before February 21. They will make sure the letters reach local seniors.

There are a lot of writers who read this blog, also a lot of kind, thoughtful souls.  Please, in the next three weeks, try to find a few minutes to choose or make a card, fill it with loving thoughts, and send it off.  If you’re spending time with your kiddos or grands, perhaps this might be a fun creative project one afternoon - having them design and write cards of their own.  True that, in your neighbourhood, this may require some research to discover where your cards might be dropped off but, PLEASE do not be discouraged by that task.  

Also, if you can find it in your heart, please spread the word, by mouth and on your socials.  This is definitely a more-the-merrier activity!

There are some guidelines (link): Love For Our Elders

I will be writing a card or two myself, and I hope you will do the same, please.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

’Til next time, y’all…

*Title, 1990s BBC television comedy.