the letters to Jessie project

i was so fortuante to be able to borrow the letters that my grandfather, Frank Middleton Risk, sent to my Grandmother Jessie, during the second World War. The letters had been kept for years in a little photo envelope but some had started to come apart at the edges and were in need of TLC. The best thing to do, I decided, was to place individually inside page protectors in a scrapbook album - I plenty of those on hand! - and sew down the seams to keep the letter in place. If you see above, the seam leaves a little pocket on the right hand side.

Frank Middleton was my Dad's father. They look so alike. The letters in Frank's voice were surprisingly warm, loving and caring, referring to Jess as 'Sweetheart' often. I guess it was easier to be lovey dovey in a letter than face-to-face. When my own Dad wrote letters to me as a child - so glad Grandma kept them in the holiday scrapbooks she made me - he used a similar loving voice.

The letters have all been lovingly and carefully scanned so sometime in the next few months I plan to make a photo book from the scans and try and recreate a bit of the intimacy of personal letters - something I didn't quite achieve with the enormous album.

But at least they're safe now.