Supporting Troops Through Letters

Barbara Spanier has made many a soldier -- and postal worker -- very happy over the years. According to a story on abc7chicago.com, the Burbank, Ill. resident has been writing letters to soldiers overseas since 1944. Though Spanier doesn't know how many letters she's mailed out in her 65 years of writing, she does know that they've gone to soldiers serving in six different wars.

Spanier began her patriotic hobby in 1944 when she started writing to her uncle. He was a Marine and was sent to Guadalcanal.

Her next set of letters went to her husband, Bill, who served in Korea. After Bill came back safe and sound, Spanier didn't stop writing. She's written countless letters to troops all over the world, mostly to sons and grandsons of her Chicago-area friends. Spanier says she informs the soldiers of the goings-on back at home. The recipients of Spanier's letters clearly appreciate her efforts --Spanier says many of them write back.

And even though it seems humanly impossible to write that many letters for that many years, Spanier doesn't cheat: Even though she has a computer, she doesn't send e-mails. Only real, old-fashioned, handwritten letters.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.