After being a pen pal for about 36 years…a first. I opened my mailbox and saw a letter from a pen friend in Australia. I could tell by the “wrinkly” look of the envelope that it had gotten wet at some point in the postal journey. At first, I was not concerned as the envelope was dry and intact.
But as I opened it, it became clear that the letter had not just gotten a few raindrops on it, but had been totally soaked or emerged in water! The letter was written on a note card and stationery paper, which was wrinkly, and the ink was totally smeared/smudged and unreadable as a result. Some paper nature images enclosed in the letter were all wrinkly too. The one surviving item, without any damage, was a laminated bookmark! The lamination had made it waterproof.
Over the years I have received a rare ripped or torn letter in the mail, but never one damaged by water. How about you??
Postman's Treasure 
Yes. I have. I’m from Australia and I received a letter from USA which had the same treatment as your letter! How about that? Roles reversed!! The letter was unreadable and the envelope and paper were totally ruined and wrinkled. I think the letter swam to me personally. 🤣
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Wow – thanks for sharing Rosie! I can understand rain drops, but how does a letter get this wet? Yes – maybe swam in the ocean…haha!
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Yikes! I often use water soluble inks (felt tip pens, sign pens, especially fountain pens). And we are expecting rain Monday.
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I guess she wrote with water soluble ink, which normally would be fine since sealed inside an envelope…
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Earlier this year it was a day of a lot of rain, on which I got 3 letters from penpals. So they all got damaged by laying in my mailbox, which had some water in it. Luckily it wasn’t that bad and all letters were readable, after I let them dry out on the floor; I carefully took out all sheets to lay them to dry.
My Canadian penpal recieved a really wet letter from me once, she said it was about 1/3 readable. I think she got it dried up, so something must have happened on the way. Ah, imagine if letters could speak about their journey! (And to let us know where those letters that never reach their destination are)
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Glad my mailbox is dry and rainproof! Yes – that would be interesting if a letter could speak about their journey! Thanks for your comments Helena.
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That’s unfortunate. How would that even happen?
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I wonder too – how did the letter get THAT wet?! I felt bad I could not read the letter my pen pal wrote me.
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