What to write in a greetings card when you don't know what to say

Here is a short guide to writing messages in greetings cards for the difficult events in life such as bereavement, illness or divorce.

"The blank inside of a card is one of the most difficult spaces to fill.
You can't outsource it. You can't delegate it. It is from you."

Most of us can knock out a perfect birthday message in thirty seconds. 

But hand us a card for someone going through life's more challenging chapters; a divorce, bereavement, a cancer diagnosis and we freeze.

We write something on a notepad and re-write it many times.  The big worry is that what we write could feel clunky, or could make things feel even worse.

We've put together some helpful thoughts about writing messages inside sympathy, sorry, illness and bereavement cards.

We've written messages in cards for our friends and loved ones in hard times, and have received them ourselves. So here are our thoughts:

Say something - don't leave it blank

Signing your name and some kisses underneath doesn’t carry as much meaning as a personal message. An imperfect and present message beats perfect and absent every time.

Name the thing

Don't try to fix it