My Daughter Called Me Old Fashioned Because I Still Write Letters To My Wife

My daughter came to visit last Sunday and saw me at the dining table with my pen and paper. She laughed and said nobody writes letters again in this generation. I just smiled because she does not understand.

I have been writing to my wife since 1985 when we were courting. She was teaching in a school in Oyo town and I was a young clerk in Ibadan. No phone then. Every week I would write her a letter and post it. When she received it she would read it many times before replying. That is how we built our marriage, slowly, with words that stayed on paper.

Now everybody wants quick message on WhatsApp. Send and delete. No memory. My daughter said I should join the modern world. I told her the modern world is why many marriages are dying. When you write something down with your own hand, you think before you write. You cannot just type nonsense and press send.

My wife still keeps all my letters in a wooden box. She showed our last born the other day. The boy was shocked. He said Daddy you were romantic. I said no, I was just patient. The Yoruba say bi oba ti ri ni mo ti n ri. What you see is what I see. Young people today want everything fast. Fast love, fast marriage, fast divorce.

Maybe I am old. But I will keep writing my letters until my hand cannot hold the pen again.