Dear Sam,

 I hope you enjoyed the Buffalo String Works concert and I’m sure you were very proud of J and his friends; it sounds like a wonderful initiative and I love the fact that the universal language of music brings everyone together.

Speaking of J, I expect he’ll be spoiling you on Sunday as I believe it is Mother’s Day in the US? I hope you have a lovely day and I’m sure you’ll be thinking of your own Mum, too. As you know, we had our own Mother’s Day here in the UK back in March; these red-letter days are a perfect chance to catch up with people who are important in our lives, aren’t they? That reminded me to tell you about  a great project I read about the other day which recruits volunteers to telephone older people who might not have a lot of friends and family for a regular chat. The Silver Line  is one of the charities in the UK which runs a scheme like this but, of course, you don’t need to volunteer formally to be able to reach out to someone  who might enjoy some company or a chance to talk. By picking up the phone – or writing a letter – we can all brighten someone’s day very easily.

Do you remember that when we were at college, we had to go to a phone box to ring people – how much nicer for students these days to be able call from the comfort of home using their mobile phones!

Much love,

Claire