Proper etiquette question...

[MomRN]

My grandmother passed away in April. She moved from Florida (with lots of friends and church members) to Indiana seven years ago. She kept in contact with several of those people through the years. Her address book contained 100's of names.

Since it wasn't feasible to contact everyone in Florida, we called/sent letters to a handful of people that would spread the word to the vast majority. However, there are a some that apparently weren't made aware, as we are now receiving Christmas cards in her name.

So, what's the proper way to handle this? Write a letter? Send a Christmas card back with the information? Return to Sender/deceased?

I'm thinking writing a letter would be best.

 

[NotUrsula]

My condolences on your grandmother's death.

The situation definitely calls for a letter. You can make it a mail-merge form letter if you wish, just don't make it look like one. It won't hurt to send the same letter to all of them, but address it individually, and make it warm, not too businesslike. Maybe something like this ...

Dear Mrs. Johnson:

I received your Christmas card that was sent to my grandmother, Jane Watson. Unfortunately, I have the sad duty to inform you that Jane passed away this past April after a brief illness caused by renal failure. She passed peacefully in her sleep, surrounded by her family.

We all miss grandmother very much at this holiday season, and we appreciate that your thoughts were also with her. I know that she treasured your friendship.

Kindest regards of the Season,
Mary Watson

(Normally I wouldn't volunteer a cause of death, but these folks were her friends, and older friends always seem to want to know the cause of death -- IME, if you don't tell them they will write or call back to find out what it was, especially when they hear about a death after the fact. We found that out when we had to write a similar series of letters after my Dad passed away.)

 

[SandrA9810]

My condolences on your grandmother's death.

The situation definitely calls for a letter. You can make it a mail-merge form letter if you wish, just don't make it look like one. It won't hurt to send the same letter to all of them, but address it individually, and make it warm, not too businesslike. Maybe something like this ...

Dear Mrs. Johnson:

I received your Christmas card that was sent to my grandmother, Jane Watson. Unfortunately, I have the sad duty to inform you that Jane passed away this past April after a brief illness caused by renal failure. She passed peacefully in her sleep, surrounded by her family.

We all miss grandmother very much at this holiday season, and we appreciate that your thoughts were also with her. I know that she treasured your friendship.

Kindest regards of the Season,
Mary Watson

(Normally I wouldn't volunteer a cause of death, but these folks were her friends, and older friends always seem to want to know the cause of death -- IME, if you don't tell them they will write or call back to find out what it was, especially when they hear about a death after the fact. We found that out when we had to write a similar series of letters after my Dad passed away.)

Sounds like something Dear Abby would say.

 

[magicgirl]

We did this last Christmas. My mother had died in the Summer and we notifed as many people as possible but my Father still received many cards. We did a standard letter on the computer and set it to all the people who had sent cards, or at least those who we had addresses for.

 

[MomRN]

My condolences on your grandmother's death.

The situation definitely calls for a letter. You can make it a mail-merge form letter if you wish, just don't make it look like one. It won't hurt to send the same letter to all of them, but address it individually, and make it warm, not too businesslike. Maybe something like this ...

Dear Mrs. Johnson:

I received your Christmas card that was sent to my grandmother, Jane Watson. Unfortunately, I have the sad duty to inform you that Jane passed away this past April after a brief illness caused by renal failure. She passed peacefully in her sleep, surrounded by her family.

We all miss grandmother very much at this holiday season, and we appreciate that your thoughts were also with her. I know that she treasured your friendship.

Kindest regards of the Season,
Mary Watson

(Normally I wouldn't volunteer a cause of death, but these folks were her friends, and older friends always seem to want to know the cause of death -- IME, if you don't tell them they will write or call back to find out what it was, especially when they hear about a death after the fact. We found that out when we had to write a similar series of letters after my Dad passed away.)

Thank you, that's perfect.