"how did you know that was exactly what i wanted to say?"

　　"i often sit and look at my boys' letters, just like you, without a clue about what to write."

　　a few days later the woman returned with a friend, then another one and yet another one--they all had sons who fought in the war, and they all needed letters. mum had become the correspondent in our part of town. sometimes she would write letters all day long.

　　mum always insisted that people signed their own letters, and the small woman with the grey hair asked mum to teach her how to do it. "i so much want to be able to write my own name so that my son can see it." then mum held the woman's hand in hers and moved her hand over the paper again and again until she was able to do it without her help.

　　after that day, when mum had written a letter for the woman, she signed it herself, and her face brightened up in a smile.

　　one day she came to us, and mum instantly knew what had happened. all hope had disappeared from her eyes. they stood hand in hand for a long time without saying a word. then mum said: "we better go to church. there are certain things in life so great that we cannot comprehend them." when mum came back home, she couldn't get the red-haired boy out of her mind.

　　after the war was over, mum put away the pen and paper. "finito," she said. but she was wrong. the women who had come to her for help in writing to their sons now came to her with letters from their relatives in italy. they also came to ask her for her help in getting american citizenship.

　　on one occasion mum admitted that she had always had a secret dream of writing a novel. "why didn't you?" i asked.

　　"all people in this world are here with one particular purpose," she said. "apparently, mine is to write letters." she tried to explain why it absorbed her so.

　　"a letter unites people like nothing else. it can make them cry, it can make them laugh. there is no caress more lovely and warm than a love letter, because it makes the world seem very small, and both sender and receiver become like kings in their own kingdoms. my dear, a letter is life itself!"

　　today all mum's letters are lost. but those who got them still talk about her and cherish the memory of her letters in their hearts.