To the Editor

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to receive personal mail. I correspond with people across North America in the U.K. and Australia and send hundreds of cards and letters every year. I’m old-fashioned. I like the “personal touch.” I like the sensation of ink flowing onto paper as I compose my thoughts feelings observations condolences best wishes . . . and I deeply appreciate receiving the same from the people in my life.
I have become increasingly dismayed by the length of time it takes for family and friends to receive my carefully chosen cards sent in a timely fashion . . . and shocked to learn that often my mail has never been received.
Not wishing to cast aspersions on the lovely people who work at our local post offices and who know us personally I made inquiries. No longer does our local mail go directly to West Guilford Wilberforce Tory Hill Gooderham etc. the day after mailing but it is shipped to Mississauga to be sorted cancelled and re-routed back to our local communities and throughout the world.
With the cost of fuel today I am hard-pressed to understand the “efficiency” of my mail travelling care of Mississauga only to (hopefully) be returned to local recipients at some protracted date.
I now print on the front of my mail the date on which it is sent in the hope that should it be received the recipient will realize just how inefficient the time-honoured tradition of mail has become.  I am not electronic! What else can we do?

Cheryl Cohoon