Knowing as I do from my own experience how deep your grief must be I also know that there is little that anyone can say or do to make your sorrow any the less. Yet I cannot refrain from offering my sincerest sympathy, and along with it the hope that Time, which softens all things, will make even this easier to bear.
Believe me, most sincerely yours,
Lillian M. Roberts.
ACKNOWLEDGING A LETTER OF CONDOLENCE
Mourning or white paper is always used when answering a letter of condolence, except when the engraved cards of acknowledgment are sent. These are severely plain, and the message is always brief. Often they are sent in the name of the entire family, as:
Mr. and Mrs. John Hall Hammond
gratefully acknowledge your expression of
sympathy upon the death of their daughter.
June 6, 1921.
This is certainly the easiest way for the bereaved to express their gratitude, though simple notes of thanks may be sent instead of the more formal card.
ETIQUETTE OF THE FRIENDLY LETTER
It is often a moot question among friends as to who shall write the first letter. Generally speaking, it is the one who has gone away rather than the one who remains behind who writes first, though among good friends there is no more necessity to count letters than there is to count visits. The writer knew a college girl who, when she came home, decided to wait before writing and see how many of her friends cared enough for her to write to her. She was rather gratified by the result but if each girl who came away from the school had arrived at the same decision the situation would have been a very queer one, to say the least of it.
A young lady who has gone away may send a card or write a brief note to a gentleman but if he is the one who has departed she should not write to him until she has received a letter from him.