Holly Grande: Short and Sweet

At some point between my high school graduation and my first day of college, my grandmother discovered e-mail.

Okay, that is not a completely accurate statement. My dad worked in IT for years, and so my grandparents have had a computer and internet access since AOL used to send diskettes in the mail. In fact, my first e-mail account was tied to my grandmother's AOL account, and one of the highlights of our Sunday family dinners was the 45 minutes I got to log on to the teen chat rooms.

But my grandmother didn't start e-mailing me regularly until I started college and moved hundreds of miles away. With so many classes and so much to do, e-mail became the way we chatted.

Grandma's e-mails are usually short and sweet, with lots of blinking graphics and lowercase letters. I love getting them, even the chain e-mails. My grandma updates me on family gossip news, what's going on in her life and her work teaching Mahjong at the community center.

The best e-mails, though, are the chain letters. Sometimes political, often politically incorrect, my grandmother has become the queen of forwarded messages. She usually includes a little note, but sometimes the block of e-mail addresses including everyone from my mom to my second cousin, once removed is all the message I need.

These days, e-mail is so much easier than writing a letter or making a phone call, and I think we take for granted the people in our lives. I may not always read the chain e-mails my grandmother forwards to me, but seeing her e-mail address in my inbox always makes me smile (and pick up the phone to say hi.)

Posted by Holly at 9:57 AM  

Labels: communication, family