Love Letters Revisited
At a book festival in Louisville, KY, in mid-October 2024, my lovely tablemate, children’s author, Lauren Vonckx (author of Ringo the Flamingo, The Meadow), shared a sweet story about the letter writing ritual she and her husband practice, that helps keep their love strong through the inevitable ups and downs of married life.
Before their wedding, well over a decade ago, Lauren and her husband decided to have a woodworker create a special ceremonial box to celebrate their special day. This custom-made box had to be large enough to hold several items: one bottle of wine, 2 wine glasses, and two slim envelopes.
On the day of their wedding, at the reception, they asked everyone in attendance to sign their names on the bottle of wine they’d selected. After the reception and honeymoon were over, the couple took the signed wine bottle, the stemware, and 2 sealed love letters (each having written one for the other), and placed them in the wood box. The box was locked with a large padlock, and remained that way until the occasion of their 10th wedding anniversary.
On the day of their 10th anniversary, Lauren and her husband took the box down from its shelf and opened it up. Each read the love letter that had been written for them a decade earlier. As they each read their love letter, they drank and enjoyed the bottle of wine that had been waiting inside the box for all those years. The letters were a powerful reminder of the love that had initially brought them together so many years before.
Once the 10th anniversary celebration was over, Lauren and her husband both wrote another letter for one another, then placed them, a new bottle of wine, and two clean glasses back into the box and locked it again. Like the time before, the box will remain locked for another decade until their 20th wedding anniversary. After that, the couple hopes to continue this tradition every ten years for as long as they’re able.
The look on Lauren’s face as she told me this story, said everything I needed to know about how much joy this simple ritual had given them. I asked her if her husband’s first letter was all that she imagined it would be. She enthusiastically nodded and exclaimed, “Yes!”
I adore this simple, romantic, and loving tradition they created, and continue to practice. Handwritten letters provide the means to convey the words that so many people struggle to say to their beloved, face-to-face. And at the end of their lives, when all is said and done, there will still be something deeply important and valuable left behind –those treasured words of love, handwritten, and sealed with a kiss.
I want to thank Lauren Vonckx for allowing me to tell this sweet story. I wish her and her husband many more anniversaries, bottles of wine, and love letters to come. I hope this will be an inspiration to others who may be looking for a special way to mark and celebrate the passage of time with their beloved life partners.