Letters to relations and intimate friends should be written in an easy, conversational style. Just as in friendly, so in friendly letters, we can touch on many subjects and in any order we like and we can use colloquial expressions which would in formal letters be quite out of place. Also , it must be remembered that however free – and0 easy may be our style, we are just as much bound by the rules of spelling punctuation, grammar, and idiom in writing a letter as we are in writing a formal letter.
______________ (Name and address of the recipient)
______________ (Date)
Subject: Offer condolence to a friend who has recently lost his mother.
Dear _ _ _ _ _ _,
It was with real sorrow that I heard this morning of your great loss. I knew your mother was ill, for your brother told me several weeks ago; but as he at that time did not seem to think the illness was very serious, the news of your mother’s death came to me as a shock. You have my sincere and heartfelt sympathy, my dear fellow, in your sorrow. I know you will feel it deeply, for you always thought so much of your mother and loved her so truly. I feel it also as a personal loss to myself; for your mother was always very kind to me, and I admired her as a good and noble woman. Her death must be a terrible grief to your father, too; please assures him also of my sincere sympathy.
Words, I know, are poor comforters. ‘The heart knoweth its own sorrow,’ and in such sorrows we are always alone. But it is not mere words when I say that I feel with you in your sorrow.
Your sincere friend,
XYZ.