The Letters You Keep

Crane & Co. is pleased to announce the grand prize winner and the runners-up for "The Letters You Keep," our first-ever contest celebrating letter-writing. We were overwhelmed with the volume of meaningful letters received from across the country, solidifying our belief in the power of this time-honored tradition.

Thank you to all who entered our contest and congratulations to our three winners!

Enjoy the following stories. We hope they may even inspire you to pick up a pen and write that letter you’ve been waiting to send.

Grand Prize Winner
Elizabeth Donohoe, Newburyport, Massachusetts

19th-century Letter Continues to Celebrate a Daughter’s Love 120 Years Later

Elizabeth’s letter was penned by her great-grandmother more than 120 years ago when she was a young child who dearly missed her father, Captain J. R. Bryan.

Captain Bryan, posted in Alabama far from a young daughter and loving wife in Virginia, received his daughter’s note while serving in the United States Army. As Elizabeth recounts, Captain Bryan treasured the letter and brought it with him when he returned home, making it a family heirloom for years and generations to come.

The letter itself is beautiful in its simplicity and candor. On a small piece of paper, now faded to an antique yellow, the little girl wrote in careful cursive,

My dear Father,

When Mother was taking her bath this morning I slid in behind her and cut this beautiful curl. I send it to you because it’s a part of Mother I want to keep so dreadfully bad myself. But all the same, I send it to my dear Father. Mother is better this morning, breakfast is ready.

Your loving child,

Mattie

Elizabeth first read her great-grandmother’s words when her grandmother died and her mother brought the letter home. One hundred and twenty years later, Elizabeth will continue a family tradition when she passes the letter down to her own daughter.

Contest Runners-Up
Lynne Giovanni, Anderson, South Carolina
Rebecca Updegraff, Colorado Springs, Colorado

A Letter Connects a Mother to her Daughter on a Special Day

Due to illness, Lynne Giovanni’s mother couldn’t be with her daughter the day Lynne’s son was born. To tell her daughter all the things she was thinking and feeling the day her daughter was preparing to welcome her first child into the world, she picked up a pen and wrote a letter. At the same time, after her son was born, Lynne picked up her own pen and wrote to her mother about the birth. The letters crossed in the mail and immediately connected both women in the joy of birth. Twenty-five years later, Lynne continues to bring her mother’s spirit back to life. She recites her mother’s loving words annually on her son’s birthday.

A Marriage Celebrated in Letters

After meeting a young man at a college dance back in 1988, Rebecca Updegraff knew she had met the man she would marry. In her excitement she locked herself in her dorm and wrote a letter to him. Little did she know that he had felt a similar spark and was writing a letter himself. Perhaps it was star-crossed that their letters crossed in the mail? Though apart, they continued to learn more about each other in letters penned over the course of the next three years, 150 letters in total. They married in 1991, and after sixteen years husband and wife continue to reflect on the love captured in those cherished letters.

Read inspiring quotes from many more contest entries.

Selected Quotes

My son will be 25 in 5 days and each year on his birthday I take the letter out to read and remember my mom who has since passed away."

- Lynne Giovanni, Anderson, South Carolina

After he died I slept with it [the letter] folded under my pillow for years. This is the only letter my father ever wrote to me and I have saved it lovingly for 17 years."

- Rebecca Johnson, Annapolis, Maryland

In our family we have a letter that has been saved for 120 years."

- Elizabeth Donohoe, Newburyport, Massachusetts

Over the course of the next 3 years, we wrote letters to each other faithfully ... we exchanged more than 150 letters ... we married September 14, 1991."

- Rebecca Updegraff, Colorado Spring, Colorado

I view the letters as part of our family’s history ... Five generations later we are still holding family reunions because of what grandma planted in us."

- Jeanette Wicks, Columbus, Georgia

We had been best friends forever, but our friendship had dimmed slightly and this letter reconnected us and made our bond stronger than ever."

- Dawne Smith, Palm Arbor, Florida

I have always felt this letter gave me a glimpse into his heart and soul. I feel privileged that he shared his innermost thoughts with his young niece so long ago."

- Doris Poyer, Johnsonburg, New Jersey

I have the letter my five-year-old son sent me when he was away at summer camp for the very first time. It’s about twenty years old now but still makes me laugh every time I read it."

- Linda Ellis, Canyon Lake, Texas

It was so uplifting to read these words of love and reassurance ... I read that letter from time to time, and am so grateful to have someone who stays with me in good times and bad. And of course, someone who wrote it all down!"

- Roseanne Felago, Stoughton, Massachusetts

I hold this paper close to my heart, for in it I realize that he loved me very much."

- Tamara Staughn, Durham, North Carolina

My oldest letter dates to when I was probably six or seven years old. It was from my best friend at the time ... We’ve been writing since and I have kept every single letter."

- Sarah Noreen, Madison, Wisconsin

These letters bring fond memories of our youth and relationship as it blossomed into what glorious thing it is now ... Our souls are connected and thus I will cherish these letters until the day I die."

- Jennifer Strawn-White, Roanoke, Texas

The letter and directions were always in the glove compartment and I would find myself pulling them out to re-read, sometimes even at stop lights."

- Joan McAfoos, Warren, Pennsylvania

On paper she conveyed what had then been unsaid for 30 years. It is a letter I keep to this day because it is the perfect snapshot of her heart."

- Pamela Owen, Humble, Texas

I received a letter from a boy I had met accidentally in 1997 ... It was filled with the promise of loving me forever ... He will make me his wife in December."

- Gina Pirozzi, Port Orange, Florida

I have every single letter my husband has ever sent me since we began dating 25 years ago. These letters mean so much to me because they tell the story of our relationship together ... They remind me why I chose him and why I love him so much."

- Pat Hancock, Hawthorne, New Jersey