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LASTING LETTERS

Everyone has a letter in them. Only some find it. 

Coming soon

UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Writing the Five Essential Letters of Your Life  (Rodale / Penguin Random House) is scheduled to be released in October 2026. 

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The book is a guide to the art of letter writing, how to, when to, why to write your essential letters. 

 

Preorder release will be announced here when available.

 

For more information, send me an email.​​​

Your Letter Awaits

We all have something we wish to say - for now, for later, perhaps for all time. Thank you; I’m sorry; forgive me; I forgive you; I love you; I miss you; I need to tell you something; goodbye. These letters are inside us waiting to bridge distances, heal relationships, transform lives, and resolve conflicts. Whether facing daily life or the end of life, we have letters which long to be written. 

 

What are we waiting for?

 

A Lasting Letter is a note written now for later - a letter that carries your voice forward in time and space - to our children, our partner, our long-deceased parent, our future self, our ex, the teacher that made a difference, an estranged friend, and more. It can be brief; it can be long. What is important is that it is. Though letter-writing may seem focused on the letter's recipient, it is the letter writer that is served first by the letter. 

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Each letter is ​unique: each voice distinct, each intention ​individual. 

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It’s time. Let me help you find your words.​

About Me

My name is Frish Brandt.

I am a 'letter midwife.' 

You may not know what it is you want to say. You may even be uncertain who you are writing to. But you know you have a letter. With careful listening, intuitive questions, and heartfelt conversation together we will find the words that form your letter. This is a process, a conversation. Listening is as much a part of this practice as writing.

 

Lasting Letters began as a service provided through hospice and palliative care doctors, however it was not long before it grew to include all mortals. While a diagnosis can be an incentive, living is catalyst enough. ​

 

Everyone has a letter in them​.

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The Process

1

EMAIL

Start with an email to me. You only need to know that you wish to write a letter – not necessarily who you are writing to or what you wish to say.

 

We'll find your words together.
 

2

TALK

We'll find a time to talk. Typically, the first letter-writing conversation will take 60-90 minutes: I'll ask questions; we'll chat; I'll keep notes and the letter will take shape. Several days later I'll share a draft of your letter. Together we'll refine it until we've got the right words and thoughts that make this letter uniquely and truly yours. 

3

COST

My service is available on a sliding scale $150-$550.

 

Money should never stand in the way of a letter. The people who pay for my service make it possible for me to volunteer it to others. ​

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In addition to working with individuals, I have led workshops for and provided my services at Stanford Hospital, Commonweal, By the Bay Health, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, DeYoung Museum, Handwritten Wines, and more.

Workshops

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Workshops are designed to fit the goals of your circle, whether it is a circle of friends, colleagues or strangers.

 

Through guided prompts, discussion, and quiet writing time, we will explore the role of essential letters and why they matter now more than ever. 

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Workshop costs range due to a number of variables. Please contact me and we can explore the possibilities together to create the perfect workshop. 

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Let’s design a workshop that’s just right for your people.

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Upcoming workshops​ – email me if interested: 

  • Writing Your Essential Letters, Amherst, MA, April 16th or 17th, 2026

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Past workshops​

  • de Young Museum (SF, CA): Writing the letter you’ve been wanting to write

  • Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA): Cancer Stories

  • Sun Valley Center for the Arts (Sun Valley, ID): I Need to Tell you Something  

  • End Well Conference (LA, CA): Your Lasting Letter

  • Handwritten Wines (Napa, CA): Thank you and more

  • Commonweal (Bolinas, CA): My Lasting Letter

  • Healing Circle (Langley, WA): How to Write your Essential Letter

  • Pathways (Sunnyvale CA): Writing My Essential Letter

T.K.

Very few have the capacity for such empathy. Even fewer can translate this into the poetry of the written word.

P.W.

It couldn’t have come at a better time. I kept saying to myself ‘I have to get this letter to her soon. I don’t know how long she will grasp it.’ The fact that it is a letter that she can always come back to is golden.

D.K.

Just wrote to my father for the first time in over thirty years. Been estranged forever. Not getting any younger. Saw the opportunity to break a family curse with a letter, so I sat down with pen and paper and wrote a letter. If I die today, with no answer, I am a better man for it.

K.S.

It was freeing to get these words onto paper.

L.L.

Your work has helped me fill a hole I didn’t think I could fill. You heard what I said and created something so beautiful and clear.

K.M.

I feel like an important task in my life journey has been accomplished.

P.T.

Writing in this way has the capacity to  help generations of families connect, reconnect, heal and resolve while they still  have time.

M.H.

I would give anything to have a last communication from each of my parents.
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