Comfort.

Not every greeting card event is a happy one, of course...here are a couple of very pretty sympathy cards:

Interestingly, this card was sent to my grandparents by my grandma on the other side of my family--in other words, my dad's mother sent this to my mom's parents. This would mean that it was sent for either the death of my great-grandfather Martin or my great-grandmother Martin--my grandpa Martin's parents. Early or mid-1970s, although this card looks older than that to me.

I took out Grandma's last name, since she is still very much alive and I want to protect her signature from the Internet bad guys. I love the borders on this card, with the soft blue edge and the little white flowers--the blue looks great next to the red flowers. What are those flowers, anyway?

I'm not sure who this next card was sent to. It's from a cousin, on the passing of "your sister," and since it came up in a layer of cards from the 1960s and 70s, I'm wondering if it wasn't sent when my grandmother's sister Edna passed away in the late 60s. It's a beautiful card. The flowers in the corners and the little border bits are a soft silver. It has a nice deckle edge, too.

I think that although we're moving to e-vites and e-birthday greetings, nothing will ever take the place of a real, snail mail, sympathy card. I hope not, anyway!