Good response to your hubby’s BIL! The letters that really get me are the ones that recount the year’s events month by month including every visit the writer made to somebody’s great aunt and every ailment they had treated.
The sad thing this year is one I received from an old HS friend from California (retired pilot) who was always able to take his family on exotic trips. Last year’s letter included some horrid pictures of his once-beautiful wife, also a HS classmate of ours. I said, “Lyn never approved this letter. She would never approve these pictures.”
This year’s letter from that couple was just 6 small pictures — mostly of local landmarks with no discernable people included. The notation just said something like, “Due to Lyn’s memory problems, we have kept our travels close to home and to places that she remembers well.”
Having lived away from California for at least 40 years, my old friend’s choices of “exotic” travel seemed wonderfully exotic to me — San Juan Capsitrano, etc. The letter spoke volumes without being maudlin.
xshubby’s BIL’s letters are excruciatingly detailed like that. no one wants to hear your every thought/action described, believe me! The letter from your HS friend does sound very touching.