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You are here: Home / Open Threads / L.A. Artist Runs Postal Service for the Dead (Open Thread)

L.A. Artist Runs Postal Service for the Dead (Open Thread)

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Artist Janelle Ketcher runs a service called Postal Service for the Dead. In it, she maintains a post office box where people can send letters to their deceased loved ones. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

This is an open thread, so talk about whatever you want, but I thought this story was too good not to share.

A few excerpts from a charming L.A.Times article about a very special artist.

Postal Service for the Dead, started by artist Janelle Ketcher, provides the living with a way to physically send letters to those who have exited this realm. The letters are stored, and if so desired, shared with the public. Senders indicate on the back of envelopes if they’d like for the notes to remain sealed or not — leaving them blank means do not open, a heart signifies read but don’t share and a star indicates share. Postal Service for the Dead also functions as a community archive for those who have lost someone, that nation that transcends borders and dimensions, whose language is grief.

Inspired by projects like the wind phone, a disconnected payphone in a garden in Ōtsuchi, Japan, where people can call the deceased, Ketcher decided to just do it herself. She opened a box at a post office in Lincoln Heights and launched an Instagram account. In the year since, dozens of people have sent letters, coming from the West Coast, the Carolinas, Florida, France and beyond.

They include postcards, handwritten notes and homemade collages. There are sweet, nostalgic remembrances, memories of times had and updates on lives lived, but also letters that render the anger, confusion and despair that can accompany the death of a person close to us.

“One big thing with grief,” Ketcher says, “is that even within a family or community unit, everyone could be grieving in a super different way.”

The archive includes letters to family, friends, pets and those who are not physically gone but who are lost in other ways. Most of the letters sent via Postal Service for the Dead have been marked for sharing. Only one letter, sent in an envelope the color of terracotta, was left blank, meaning it will remain sealed and unread.

Writing letters to the dead is a longstanding practice — “A lot of people burn their letters, and that can be really helpful as well,” Ketcher says — but being able to actually send them somewhere holds a mysterious power.

And there’s something appropriate about the Postal Service for the Dead being in Los Angeles. The city’s mythology, a brightly lighted dreamscape with a dark underbelly, makes it the perfect portal between worlds.

Ketcher knows that not everyone believes in an afterlife and that the letters may not be received by their intended recipients.

“I’m just a keeper,” Ketcher says of the letters. “But I do think you can continue a conversation, you can continue a connection, through storytelling.” The artist pauses, and adds, “If you receive a letter from someone you love, there is a bit of magic in that.”

Totally open thread.

Reader Interactions

42Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    The artist pauses, and adds, “If you receive a letter from someone you love, there is a bit of magic in that.”

    ?
    Not sure what that means in this context.

  3. 3.

    Dangerman

    Speaking of passing on, do the Chargers fire the Coach in the locker room, tarmac, or when the plane lands in LA?

    ETA: A DB Cooper would be cool. Parachuting into Barstow would be kinda cruel, but that was a dog of a first half.

  4. 4.

    Alison Rose

    I imagine for some people, just getting the words and thoughts out might bring them a bit of comfort, and I appreciate this lady for wanting to help in that way. We need more empathy like that in this world.

  7. 7.

    Martin

    As someone who has done a lot of writing, writing is more influential on me than reading is. So, I get it.

    Speaking of art – someone in Iowa attacked the Satanic Church display in the capitol. Has already lawyered up.

  13. 13.

    Old School

    The official apology letters in Georgia in their entirety:

    Sidney Powell: “I apologize for my actions in connection with the events in Coffee County.”

    Kenneth Chesebro: “I apologize to the citizens of the state of Georgia and of Fulton County for my involvement in Count 15 of the indictment.”

    Lesson learned.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    Los Angeles. The city’s mythology, a brightly lighted dreamscape with a dark underbelly

    Las Vegas on lines 1, 2, 3 and 4.

  15. 15.

    Brachiator

    @Dangerman:

    Speaking of passing on, do the Chargers fire the Coach in the locker room, tarmac, or when the plane lands in LA?

    I’m surprised that they let him get on the plane.

  16. 16.

    Villago Delenda Est

    OK VDE rant time.  What the living fuck is wrong with Electronic Arts customer support?  Well, this: An error occurred during a connection to help.ea.com. PR_CONNECT_RESET_ERROR.  You can’t reach it because they’ve got some security malfunction where it’s not talking to the internet because SOMEONE fucked up.

  25. 25.

    eclare

    Reminds me of the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb, Croatia.  Of course some memorabilia were funny, some were overwhelming.  A lot had to do with the wars in the 1990’s.

    Thanks for this story, WaterGirl.

  30. 30.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishments☘🌈 Koch

    Someone tried phone calls to the dead, but the long distance was too expensive.

  31. 31.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishments☘🌈 Koch

    Sad to see Iowa cant handle a satanic church.   Even in North Carolina part of the state worships the Blue Devils, while another part worships the Demon Deacons.

  32. 32.

    Ramalama

    When one of my uncles died, another uncle asked me to write a wee story about dead uncle hosting spies in his home. No one knew at the time. Dead uncle made up a game involving tossing old mops around. People got into it.

    Anyway I started writing it up and have gone well beyond the expected three to five paragraphs much to the annoyance of alive uncle. I’m writing and writing like every day where I think about another aspect of my relationship with dead uncle, and how it fits into the spies. I’ve got 60,000 words. I’m not stopping yet. So I get the letter to the dead. I guess that’s what I’m doing.

  38. 38.

    SteveinPHX

    Just looked this over and, WG, I have this pretty vague memory of something like this being done many years ago (>50). It was an elevating concept then and is now.

    Thanks!

  40. 40.

    Princess

    How funny to read this, this morning. I just had a long and difficult but groundbreaking article published and was regretting my old advisor died before he could see it. I was thinking of sending a copy to his old email address anyway. Maybe I’ll mail it to LA. Anyway, I get the appeal.

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