Dear Frank,
. . . As I grieved over him the next morning, expressing my regret that I hadn’t stayed, a kind nurse told me one thing she had learned from working that floor of the hospital over the years was that people seemed to choose the moment when they let go. Not exactly, of course, but it did seem like people would either die with loved ones in the room, or specifically in quiet moments when loved ones were asleep or not there. She really believed that people might hang on in order to be held by their loved ones as they died, or, feeling like their love was known and not wishing to cause pain, they might let go deliberately when they were alone. 

I can’t convey how convincing she was, with her years of experience being bedside with the dying, but I believed her, and it brought me comfort. I share it with you in case it may bring comfort, too, to the writer of that postcard.

—–email—–

Dear Frank-
My boyfriend knew I was a PostSecret fan and a couple of days before Christmas this was in a package on my porch. It was the most thoughtful and unexpected gift. Thanks Rod and Frank!

All six PostSecret books are still in hardcover are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or your favorite Independent bookstore. Order now in time for the Holidays. 

See the postcards on exhibition at the Museum of Us.

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(Scroll down to the May 28th, 2024 post.) Free link to video

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Dear Frank,

I am the poet who wrote the poem that begins, “Fuck the poets of the past, my friends…” (Its title is “Afterthought.”) My former student published it on Postsecret years ago and it has spread to people in distant places, unknown to me until two years ago, when a woman somehow found me and told me that the poem had help her too.

I saw it posted in Germany a few years ago. So cool. Every couple years somebody writes to me too. One woman sent me two pies once and thanked me for saving her life. Apple and blueberry, crushed in the mail, but I loved every bit.

I was trying to help a few students in one small poetry class on Long Island when I shared that poem with them and today I was notified that it is a Postsecret Classic. You cannot imagine how grateful I am that I have been able to do more good than I intended to, and that I got to find out that I did so. What a gift for the soul.