Carol E. Crain of North Carolina
Carol E. Crain of Southern Pines, N.C., sends “Envelope Hugs” to her friends and to some people she doesn’t know.
A retired elementary school teacher, Carol, 61, is my wife and the mother of our two daughters, Janelle and Suzanne.
“I send hand-written, hand-created notes, often including songs and poems I’ve written and quotations I collect,” Carol says. “What I send depends on a person’s situation – whether he or she has cancer, has lost a child, is going through divorce or whatever the need is.
“I write my letters, my ‘Envelope Hugs,’ in longhand. I think this means more in a day of e-mail and junk mail. I hand-make some cards, using magazine pictures. I’ve been doing this off-and-on since I was in college in S.C.”
As a college student, she wrote to friends and relatives who lived in Pennsylvania, where she grew up.
“Steve and I married after we each taught school for a year,” Carol says. “He left for a year in Vietnam only months after our wedding. I wrote him many letters during his time overseas, and I continued writing to college friends and my relatives.”
Carol sometimes reads a news article about someone going through problems, and she writes to that person.
“It depends on what I feel led to do in reaching out to a person,” she says. “After I went through malignant melanoma cancer in 1985, I’ve tended to notice people going through any type of cancer. I know how they feel when they’re told they have cancer. When you’ve been through something like that, you belong to a club you never wanted to join, but since you belong, there’s some good that can come out of it, since you understand.
“I put lots of different things in envelopes. It depends on how well I know the person, as to what I enclose. If I don’t know a person, I’ll tell them, ‘Even though I don’t know you personally, when I heard about your situation, I wanted to share with you, and I hope the things I’ve sent to you will be a blessing to your life.’
“I go through songs and poems I’ve written, especially those written since around 1974, and I think about which one/ones might help them. I’ve learned it doesn’t matter if I hear back from people. If I feel the Lord puts it on my heart to write to them, then that means there is a reason for it. I think the fact that I don’t know them is what sometimes ministers most to them.
“I may read an obituary and call the church where the funeral was held or call the funeral home. (You can send your envelope to the church/funeral home and let a pastor or director give it to the family of the deceased. A church or funeral home probably won’t give you a family’s address.). If it’s local, I look in our phone directory.
“I received a touching response from an elderly man who had been married over 60 years when his wife passed on. He approached me at church after I’d sent him something almost every day for several weeks after his wife died. He told me how much my cards had meant to him. I sent cards with pictures of dogs, boats, lighthouses, nature scenes, etc.”
“I have them standing up in each room,” he said tearfully, “and when I go from one room to the other, and I look at your note cards, they’re like company for me.”
Carol has sometimes written to famous people, but mostly writes to “everyday people.”
“I often include cards with quotes inside bills I pay,” she says. “God may use a devotional quote to encourage someone going through a hard time.
“I wrote to a lady who was going through cancer, and she said that she kept my envelope hugs in a box. When she felt especially down, she’d take my letters out and reread them. She said they ministered to her, again, and even in a different way.
“A day hardly goes by that new contacts don’t come across my path. Here’s one of my favorite poems by an unknown author: ‘It was only a kindly word / And a word that was lightly spoken / Yet not in vain / For it stilled the pain / Of a heart that was nearly broken.’
“I want my envelope hugs to do that – to still the pain of hurting people,” Carol says.
A retired elementary school teacher, Carol, 61, is my wife and the mother of our two daughters, Janelle and Suzanne.
“I send hand-written, hand-created notes, often including songs and poems I’ve written and quotations I collect,” Carol says. “What I send depends on a person’s situation – whether he or she has cancer, has lost a child, is going through divorce or whatever the need is.
“I write my letters, my ‘Envelope Hugs,’ in longhand. I think this means more in a day of e-mail and junk mail. I hand-make some cards, using magazine pictures. I’ve been doing this off-and-on since I was in college in S.C.”
As a college student, she wrote to friends and relatives who lived in Pennsylvania, where she grew up.
“Steve and I married after we each taught school for a year,” Carol says. “He left for a year in Vietnam only months after our wedding. I wrote him many letters during his time overseas, and I continued writing to college friends and my relatives.”
Carol sometimes reads a news article about someone going through problems, and she writes to that person.
“It depends on what I feel led to do in reaching out to a person,” she says. “After I went through malignant melanoma cancer in 1985, I’ve tended to notice people going through any type of cancer. I know how they feel when they’re told they have cancer. When you’ve been through something like that, you belong to a club you never wanted to join, but since you belong, there’s some good that can come out of it, since you understand.
“I put lots of different things in envelopes. It depends on how well I know the person, as to what I enclose. If I don’t know a person, I’ll tell them, ‘Even though I don’t know you personally, when I heard about your situation, I wanted to share with you, and I hope the things I’ve sent to you will be a blessing to your life.’
“I go through songs and poems I’ve written, especially those written since around 1974, and I think about which one/ones might help them. I’ve learned it doesn’t matter if I hear back from people. If I feel the Lord puts it on my heart to write to them, then that means there is a reason for it. I think the fact that I don’t know them is what sometimes ministers most to them.
“I may read an obituary and call the church where the funeral was held or call the funeral home. (You can send your envelope to the church/funeral home and let a pastor or director give it to the family of the deceased. A church or funeral home probably won’t give you a family’s address.). If it’s local, I look in our phone directory.
“I received a touching response from an elderly man who had been married over 60 years when his wife passed on. He approached me at church after I’d sent him something almost every day for several weeks after his wife died. He told me how much my cards had meant to him. I sent cards with pictures of dogs, boats, lighthouses, nature scenes, etc.”
“I have them standing up in each room,” he said tearfully, “and when I go from one room to the other, and I look at your note cards, they’re like company for me.”
Carol has sometimes written to famous people, but mostly writes to “everyday people.”
“I often include cards with quotes inside bills I pay,” she says. “God may use a devotional quote to encourage someone going through a hard time.
“I wrote to a lady who was going through cancer, and she said that she kept my envelope hugs in a box. When she felt especially down, she’d take my letters out and reread them. She said they ministered to her, again, and even in a different way.
“A day hardly goes by that new contacts don’t come across my path. Here’s one of my favorite poems by an unknown author: ‘It was only a kindly word / And a word that was lightly spoken / Yet not in vain / For it stilled the pain / Of a heart that was nearly broken.’
“I want my envelope hugs to do that – to still the pain of hurting people,” Carol says.
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