by Judy Zabriskie

Created on: September 02, 2008   Last Updated: September 09, 2011

Thank you notes, like most written genre are becoming a thing of the past due to the internet usage and the lack of continuity and sheer negligence of the Postal Service as well as the added mailing expenses incurred while using the Postal Service. That being said, I still think it is proper and in good taste to thank each individual who provided you with a gift or service be it by snail mail, e-mail or via Skype for that personalized touch. 

Several months ago my nephew married. Mind you, I have not seen nor heard from this boy or his family for over 15 years BUT we did receive a lovely invitation via the snail mail to the wedding (which we turned down due to locale of the wedding) and on the invitation was a wedding site on line where we could “donate” to their honeymoon and another where we could order gifts (nothing at either site under $100) from Williams-Sonoma and have it delivered directly to their door (they have been living together for over 6 years .)  My husband, whose family this is, decided we should give nothing since no one has bothered to contact us in years but I, the pleaser and with the secret hope that this would mend whatever fences we seemed to have torn down) decided to register at the site, donate $100 toward airfare to their destination to the Fiji Islands and write a note on line about how happy we were that they had found each other and that we hoped this would be a long lasting and happy relationship. 

Months passed and we never were acknowledged. Well much to my surprise in my in box at the e mail address I used to submit the gift came a thank you note of sorts. It was purely generic and to: Those who donated to our wonderful and exciting honeymoon but whom we do not know personally…  At first I was taken back and didn’t know what to think but then I guess after laughing to myself I guess they were correct in this assumption.  We had never met the bride and the groom we hadn’t seen since he was 6 or 7 so they truly did not know us – but in looking through the list of receivers of this e mail I found comfort in knowing we were definitely not alone.  So their solicitation for monetary contributions for their extravagant honeymoon seemed to have been fulfilled by those unknown to them. 

I guess moral of the story – make up a master list of all people who have passed through your life, send out invitations (they are in the IT field and these invitations,

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