Get well soon messages for a friend

Six messages you could actually send

Continue writing opens that message in the card with the words already in it, so all that is left is to change a word and send it. The last message is the longest of the six, and it is the only one you have to copy across yourself.

1. There's nothing you need to do about this message. No reply, no update, no being cheerful at me. I'm thinking of you, I'll keep thinking of you, and I'll ask your family for news instead of asking you.

   Continue writing with message 1

2. Take whatever time this takes and let people look after you. You're usually the one doing the looking after, so consider it your turn. Tell me what would actually help and I'll just do it, no discussion.

   Continue writing with message 2

3. Thinking of you today. I won't ask how you're feeling, because I imagine you've answered that a hundred times this week. I'm here, I'll stay here, and there's no version of this where I get tired of that.

   Continue writing with message 3

4. I'll bring food on Sunday and you don't have to be entertaining, or dressed, or even awake. If you'd rather I didn't come, say so and I won't take it personally at all. Rest is the only thing on your list.

   Continue writing with message 4

5. I'm not going to say anything clever here, because there isn't anything clever to say. I just didn't want the day to go past without you knowing I was thinking about you. Everything else can wait.

   Continue writing with message 5

6. There's nothing at all you need to do about this. No reply, no update, and no being cheerful at anybody. I'll ask your family for news instead of making you give the same account eleven times over. Rest, let people help, and I'll be here for as long as any of this takes.

   Copy

Writing your own

Release them from replying. An ill person's phone becomes a job — the same update, forty times. A card that explicitly says no need to answer this is a kindness, and it makes yours the easiest message they got that week.

Offer one specific thing on a specific day. Let me know if you need anything never gets taken up. I will bring khichdi on Sunday, say no if it is a bad day is an offer someone can actually accept.