5 Oct 2026
Episode 32 A Childhood in Letters
Show Notes
Shelley, age 2 in 1972, and Nanna age 72, with Nanna’s precious doggie
Episode Show Notes
This week on Tell Me Over Tea, I sit down with Shelley to talk about her great-grandmother — fondly called Nanna — and the letters Shelley wrote to her across almost her entire childhood.
Nanna was born in 1900, and from the moment Shelley arrived, the two shared a special bond. Shelley tells the story of Nanna walking a long distance just to buy her a walkie-talkie doll for her second Christmas — a small act that speaks volumes about how much love went into that relationship. Every Sunday after church, Shelley’s family would make the hour-long drive on gravel roads to visit Nanna and her grandmother, a ritual that shaped so much of her childhood.
Shelley started writing to Nanna at around four and a half years old — her first letters scrawled on Wombles stationery, full of news from the farm. Nanna had arthritis and could never write back, but that didn’t stop Shelley from writing. They kept flowing right through Shelley’s teenage years, when — after her parents’ divorce — she found herself stepping into a motherly role for her younger sisters. The letters shifted too, becoming a private place to say the things she couldn’t say out loud, safe in the knowledge that Nanna would never repeat a word.
Shelley kept writing to Nana until she was nineteen. After Nana passed away when Shelley was sixteen, she continued writing to her, but those letters she burned as part of her grieving process. Years later Shelley inherited her Nanna’s old dressing table, and discovered a box tucked inside it full of letters she’d completely forgotten about. A time capsule of her childhood, from age four to sixteen, right there!
This is a beautiful conversation about the power of letters — how they can hold grief, joy, secrets, and the everyday.
Shelley’s first letter written when she was 4 1/2 on Wombles paper no less! I loved the Wombles too!
Shelley and her walking talking doll at age 2.
If this episode has you thinking about the letters you’ve written, kept, or wish you still had, I’d love for you to join the Lovely Letters Project (https://bettymaewrote.com/pages/pen-pals) — my free pen pal exchange, and a lovely place to start writing letters of your own.
If you enjoyed this episode, I’d love it if you would follow Tell Me Over Tea wherever you listen, and if you feel so inclined, please leave a little review — it helps more story-lovers find their way here:)
Kim x
Where to find me:
✨I write, on Substack, a weekly newsletter, you can subscribe to that here: Betty Mae Wrote newsletter (https://substack.com/@bettymaewrote). It’s the space where I share stories (both mine and other people’s) and it’s also a way of keeping up to date with all things Betty Mae Wrote, Little Life Stories, Lovely Letters and the podcast.
✨The Tea + Toast Letter Club (https://kyl5j1fht23112jd-57438896333.shopifypreview.com/pages/tea-and-toast-letter-club)! A little moment to pour yourself a cuppa, find a comfy spot, and enjoy a letter (and some other goodies) in the mail every month. You can read more about it here (https://kyl5j1fht23112jd-57438896333.shopifypreview.com/pages/tea-and-toast-letter-club).
✨If you’d like to get back into the gorgeous slow soothe of letter writing, please know you are always welcome to join: The Lovely Letters Project (https://bettymaewrote.com/pages/pen-pals) (it’s free!)
✨To find out more about my memory writing program, Little Life Stories (https://bettymaewrote.com/pages/coming-soon-in-2025-a-new-chapter-for-writing-your-stories) you can do that here: Little Life Stories (https://bettymaewrote.com/pages/coming-soon-in-2025-a-new-chapter-for-writing-your-stories)
✨I’ve created a simple and beautiful starting point for your own storytelling: The Five Minute Memory List.It’s a short, exercise (a cuppa’s worth), to help you gather memories and begin. It’s fun and easy peasey and it’s something you can use in your letter writing, journaling and personal life writing. You can grab that by subscribing to my newsletter (you’ll find it in the welcome letter one you’ve signed up): here (https://substack.com/@bettymaewrote)
✨Or if you simply need a good old sticky beak around the place, please head on over here to the website: www.bettymaewrote.com (http://www.bettymaewrote.com)
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Tell Me Over Tea is a cosy storytelling podcast about the stories that matter — one memory, and cuppa, at a time.
Written and hosted by Kim, founder of Betty Mae Wrote — a slow-living space for letter writing, memory keeping, and everyday storytelling, from a tin cottage on the Far South Coast of NSW.
Music: Kim on the uke;) Rattling teacups – also KimProduction and Editing: Surprise, surprise, guess who? Yep! Kim again!
Art by Lewis Dillon (thanks, Lew!)
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