Allie's Blog IV: Revenge of Allie's Blog

[imallie]

Ok well first three replies came in and I'm in tears... so... yeah.

Oh damn - good tears, sorry.  I buried the lede on that a bit.

[imallie]

Actually it was 4-for-4... I should have known my one friend (a doctor) who 100% should know better that I cannot talk because of my migraines in the evening ALWAYS tries to call me in the evening would, in fact, call me immediately upon getting the note. I just saw I had a voice mail from him.  It was equally lovely.

By the way, in case people are interested or it helps anyone in the future as a suggestion — the way I approached these letters was different than family.

So far the versions of the letter:

1. For my sisters
2. For the nephews/nieces on my side (to be delivered by my sisters)
3. For my wife's family (written from both of us) — with a note empowering them to share the same note with their children.
4. And now the friend notes - but each of the six were personalized. They were 80-90% the same, but in each there were slight changes in tone based on their relationship with my sisters, or how long they've known me, or a whole bunch of different factors.

The whole thing is to keep in mind that these letters are for the READER so I'm always customizing it with that in mind.

The next "bucket" of friends will, likely, get a more generic friend letter. As that will be a bigger bucket. That's the prevailing thought, anyway.

Ok, I'm literally spent. I could use a cluster-free night... but need to go get ready.

'Night all,
Allie

[Oldandcreaky]

Hooray for you, Allie. And hooray for your wife, for she gets to keep your pals in her world. And most of all, hooray for your friends, for they get to keep Allie and you in their worlds.

[imallie]

Hooray for you, Allie. And hooray for your wife, for she gets to keep your pals in her world. And most of all, hooray for your friends, for they get to keep Allie and you in their worlds.

Thanks and yeah, it's been good. Quite a morning, but good.

6-for-6 on the friends. ❤️

Had nice notes from all of them... and have spoken at length to two of them today already, and texted with a third to set up a time to chat on Thursday.  Another we will try to set up a lunch with soon.

Here's just a sampling of a few of the (edited) messages:

Not really sure what to say in an email but you are my friend and that will never change - Am I surprised, yes, but all I want is for you to be happy.I will call you tomorrow!!!
—
Thank you for sharing your letter with me. I respect and love you no matter what. Nothing will change between us-you are still my dear friend and will always be.
—

Hey... I just read your letter and then read it again to [my wife] aloud. My friend... I love you, I will always love you, so thank you for sharing this with me. I and we will always be here for you and our friendship will never die! Let's chat tomorrow.
—
Ok I just got your note, and thank you for letting me know and bringing me in. I'll want to hear all about everything of course, and much more about how you're doing, but wanted to let you know right away that I got it and to say thank you and that I'm proud of you. If there's a good day to talk tomorrow or sometime this week let me know, ok?
I love you, my friend.

There was one bad phone call today:

I ordered Pho for lunch, and I got a call from the restaurant reminding me that they were closed today and they apologized for the website allowing the order to go through. So now I have to have something else for lunch... when I was really looking forward to that.

But you, know, in terms of all the other stuff? All good.  Just EXHAUSTING.

Yours in pho-lessness,
Allie


P.S. Oh, on one of the calls, one of my friends speaking about my wife said the following - "I've told many people, you and your wife are the best friends of any couple I know."  Which is an awfully nice thing to say.