Mrs. Stephen Webster lived in Willink, a village that had been re-formed several times with new names since 1874 – but which survived as a named post office (until 1913) in Erie County of western New York State.
It is very fortunate that this postcard has the receiving postmark of “Willink” as these postmarks are rare.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willink,_New_York
In December of 1908, Mrs. Webster received a Christmas postcard from her nephew, Arthur.
Arthur mailed the postcard from Buffalo, the great industrial and transportation center on Lake Ontario in western New York.
Buffalo is 21 miles northwest of Willink.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo,_New_York
Arthur addresses Mrs. Webster as “Aunt Em” – which could be Emily, Emma, Emmaline, Amelia, or some other first name.
The face of the postcard bears the drawing of a great crescent of holly.
The holly encircles the words, “Merry Christmas”.
On the reverse, Arthur acknowledges that he sent the card “…to prove I’ve not forgotten you altogether.”
It seems that Aunt Em treasured the postcard as it was preserved in good condition throughout her life.
One hopes that Arthur and his aunt enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and that Arthur made other overtures to his aunt throughout 1909.
