Very cool initiative! This way one might actually learn something about someone else they didn’t know before :D

I come from a very closed family. We don’t hug, kiss (which is a Dutch tradition) or say that we love each other. Although I do feel I am close with my parents and my younger brother we don’t express this. This has always been this way and had accepted this. So for expression of closeness and love I would turn to my friends and saw them as more of a family at some point.

Then 9 moths ago I left my home country to go travel the world. My parents dropped me off at the airport. I think I gave my mother a short hug and my father shook my hand. I haven’t really spoken to my dad since nor my younger brother for that fact. All communication goes strictly trough my mum. She is my mother but also a best friend. When we talk on the phone I sometimes hear my dad making noise in the background. Which is my main indicator that he is alive and well. For my younger brother I usually have to ask what’s going on.

But one time I strongly felt the need to tell them I loved them. So I wrote them a letter (on actual paper) to tell them how I was doing and that I loved them. To which my mother replied with a letter saying she loved me too. Which was for the first time since I can remember. I could have exploded with happiness!!

Even though we don’t say we love each other out loud I know it’s all good under the hood. Especially with my father and brother I know we don’t have to say much and with my mother I know I can tell her and say anything.