Unexpected joy of the postcard lottery
Two women tell us how their passion for postcards changed their lives for the better
THERE are few nicer things to find in the morning post than a postcard from a loved one.And this year marks 150 years since the very first postcard was sent.
Plain rectangular cards called Correspondenz Kartes were introduced by the Austrian postal service in 1869, as a quicker and cheaper alternative to sending letters.
In 1889 when the construction of the Eiffel Tower was complete, French engraver Charles Libonis designed a postcard featuring an etching of the tower for visitors to buy and send to friends and family.
And so the postcard as we know it today was born.
It wasn’t long before the trend crossed the Channel to England, with one newspaper remarking in 1899 that the craze had spread “like the influenza”.
Here, two women tell us why postcards are more relevant now than ever – and how they have changed their lives for the better.
I SEND POSTCARDS TO COMPLETE STRANGERS
SUSAN JONES, 30, a youth worker, lives in Thetford, Norfolk, with her boyfriend Hugh, 30, a research ecologist
OVER the past few years, I’ve sent more than 1,000 postcards to strangers around the world.
It might sound strange, but it’s a hobby of mine. It started in 2012 when I heard about a company called Postcrossing, which allows you to send and receive postcards from people all over the world.
All you need to do is register with the website and send a postcard to the address you’re given.When that postcard arrives, the recipient registers it online and you are sent a postcard from one of the website’s other members.
There are nearly 800,000 members, living in 209 countries.
When I first signed up, I lived in north Wales. It’s such a beautiful part of the country, but it’s not as well known as Cornwall or the Cotswolds, so I wanted to share it.
I started buying postcards of nearby beauty spots and sending them around the world.
Soon I was hooked. I loved reading the snippets of people’s lives when their postcard arrived.
The postcards can be a lifeline for older people, or those who can’t leave their house, as they can travel the world by reading other people’s cards. I’ve sent and received more than 1,000, and I have a huge collection at home.
I particularly like postcards of birds, so people send me cards with pictures of birds that are native to their country and tell me a bit about them.
My favourites are displayed in frames on the walls.
I’ve received postcards from as far away as St Lucia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
I’ve had plenty from closer to home too, including Germany and elsewhere in the UK.
I’ve even made friends along the way that I’ve gone on to meet when they’ve visited the UK. Hopefully I’ll send postcards for years to come.After all, it’s so much better to receive a friendly postcard than junk mail or a bill.
ADDRESS MISTAKE LED TO A NEW FRIENDSHIP
PATRICIA HAMMOND, 40, is an opera singer who lives in Ealing, west London
SINCE I was a child, I’ve always loved sending postcards.
There’s something about the quirky pictures and handwritten messages that could never be replaced by texts or email.
As a singer, I travel all over the world and always try to send a postcard from wherever I go.
And it can lead to chance encounters.
I’d always been on good terms with an ex-boyfriend Jim and his family, who live in Canada. So occasionally I would send postcards to his mum and dad, who lived separately.
In 2006 I misplaced Jim’s mum’s address, so I looked her up online.
Her name is May Florence MacDonnell, and sure enough I found an address for an M F MacDonnell in her town. I sent her cards from all over the world. Then in 2012, I was rehearsing in Wexford, Ireland, when I got a call from a lady in Canada. “Are you Patricia? At last I’ve found you,” she said.
She said her name was Margaret Fiona MacDonnell, and she’d been receiving my cards for six years. Because I usually sign my initial rather than my name, it took time to track me down. But on one card I signed “Patricia”, which gave her a clue. Soon after, I’d sent a card from Wexford. Knowing from other messages that I was an opera singer, she pieced the puzzle together. Margaret was housebound and didn’t have access to the internet, but her hairdresser looked online for singers called Patricia who were performing operas in Wexford and there was only one – me. She found my number on my website and gave it to Margaret, who called me. She also tracked down Jim’s mum to tell her about the cards.
May was relieved as she’d been wondering for years why I sent postcards to Jim’s dad and not her.
“Could I be so bold as to ask whether you’ll keep sending me postcards? I love to read them,” asked Margaret.
I said I would.And the next time I was in Canada, I went to visit her.
She lived in a small flat and had a heart condition which meant she easily got out of breath.
But her home was filled with objects from all around the world.
She told me her parents had been diplomats and in her younger days she loved to travel, but as she got older, she hadn’t been able to.
So she loved reading my descriptions of the places I’d visited. It was so moving to finally meet her and I carried on writing to her until she died in 2014.
I still love to send postcards, including to Jim’s mum.
They bring so much joy – and all for the cost of a postage stamp.
Visit youtube.com/patricia hammondsongs
Visit 150 years of postcards. com