Letters to family

I just returned back home from our Portugal trip (comments about that will follow in the next days) and one of the first things I did was not sorting out pictures as some of you might think. No, I did what I am doing every week - wrote a letter to my grandma.

Here, I don't know what are your relationship with your grandparents and if they are even alive. I am a very lucky person, because I had three great-grandmothers when I was born. Unfortunately none of them is alive by now, but I still have a grandpa and both my grandmas alive, so I use any opportunity to visit them when I am back in Latvia.

Grandma from my father's side (so his mother) used to be a teacher of Latvian literature and language, so she had a very big influence for my love to ... Latvian literature and language. Although I was already six years old when I learnt how to read (which is quite late), I have been addicted to books and writing since the childhood. My grandma passed to me her passion for all of that.

So now we exchange letters, and it has been a tradition for several years - it started already back in 2007 when I moved to Malta. Every week or so I receive a letter from her, and write her back - and the other way around. We chat about books both of us have read, recent happenings within the family and close friends, my trips abroad, her cultural activities (she often visits different exhibitions and theatre performances) and news from Latvia.

It is a nice gesture to feel closer to your family if you do not see them every day. I do not like to call so much, so letters are a perfect way to keep in touch. And it's one of the rare occasions when I still use a pen and paper, not a computer. :)