Love Letters - Have They Gone the Way of the Dinosaur?

I remember when I got my first love letter from my now ex-fiance. He was a guy I met my freshman year in high school and was my "dream date." We eventually ended up dating in our early twenties and then became engaged. I'm not really sure what happened after that. Although technically I think we're still engaged since I don't remember the engagement actually ever being called off. The letter was written in long hand -cursive I think. It was on a piece of notebook paper, torn out of the notebook left with the ragged edge. It was so exciting. I kept it for a long time. I don't know what ever happened to it. But I do still keep it in my mind as my heart moved on a long time ago. Then I thought ...

When was the last time I got a love letter? I fear that that love letter, was the last time I got a love letter. But what about now. In our age of technology? Do emails really count as "love letters?" (haven't gotten one of those either, but that's ok) What about text messages? lol, omg, brb, ttyl. Do "love letters" that have to be translated into English really count? Do they have the same affect as the handwritten letter? Do we print the email and put it in out special box of boyfriend momentos? Is there the same emotion attached to an email - a lovemail if you will (what do you even call them?)- when it has smiley emoticons on there to tell you how you feel about someone as opposed to someone actually expressing through the written word, how they feel about you? When future generations find these emails, will they get excited about them? Or will they just feel benign and generic? Well, guess what I found ... ?

I found my grandpa's love letters to my grandma about 15 years ago. I still have them. There were about 10 of them although I'm sure there were more. Every Valentine's Day, every wedding annivesary and sometimes just because, he would write a poem, in a card, professing his love for my gram. They'd been together since before WWII and I've got some letters dated into the 1970's. Do the math. There were many, many years of love between them. Often the letters started out, My Dearest Josephine and were signed by Your loving Bernie. The words in between were always beautiful. But that's what a love letter is all about. It's about professing your feelings and I'm just not sure an email is what it's all about. I could be wrong, because I've never gotten a love email or a love text. But somehow, to me, knowing that the man took some time to think about what he was going to say, as opposed to being able to do a quick spell check on the computer, is just a little bit more romantic. I wonder then, has the age of technology also made us less romantic? But lucky for me, I've got the "old school" love letters as proof of a generation of people who really knew how to love.