Childhood memories.

My father taught me how to write a letter when I was five or six. I remember sitting next to him on our golden brown plush sofa in our flat in Anthony Village, Lagos, Nigeria. He said to me, let's write a letter. I must have asked how to do such a thing because I remember him breaking down the components of a letter as I dictated what I wanted him to say.

Dear Daddy Ilorin,
Hope this letter meets you well.

My father told me that you start a letter by asking about the recipient's well being, and the rest of the family.
Then you give news about yourself and family. Then finally you end this way:

Sincerely,
Yemisi

It has been 3 decades since he taught me this format and I haven't deviated from this format since then, even with the advent of email. Well, I might leave out the dear occasionally, and I might change the tag line from sincerely to something a bit warmer, depending on whom I am writing to.

I have to write a letter today and as I laid in bed composing the letter in my head, I chuckled a bit remembering.

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