A Monaghan parent has used the power of a handwritten letter to tell his daughter how much she means to him and her mother. In a letter to the Joe Finnegan Show, Denis O'Higgins, described himself as an exponent of "handwritten missives" and described how his mother wrote to each of her nine children who lived far away from home.
Denis explained how his letters from his mother are all dated and provide him today with a record of their lives and "captured a warmth and honesty" that simply cannot be found in other media. Inspired by re-reading his own mother's letters, Denis O'Higgins wrote a letter to his "wee daughter" to let her know how precious she is to her parents and so that she may always have a written record of that affection.
Denis said letter-writing is an art form and there is something more personal about someone putting pen to paper: "It's only last week that I got a handwritten thank you letter from someone and y'know I wouldn't put it through the shredder; I just couldn't do it," Denis told Northern Sound, "Whereas letters I would get that are typed, once I'd be finished with them I wouldn't have a problem with that, y'know just for safety purposes I'd put them through the shredder but, a handwritten letter has its own persona. It's a work of art."
