I still think it’s funny to think about the stupid timeline of everything in the past five weeks. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their second pregnancy, then the next day, we learned about the Oprah interview. That jump-started Buckingham Palace’s eager-yet-half-assed formalization of the “one year review,” in which the Queen officially kicked Harry and Meghan off of all of their “royal” patronages. What was especially dumb about that is that the Palace didn’t even inform most of those patronages that they were about to lose their patron. Anyway, all of that to say… all of Meghan and Harry’s private, non-royal patronages are sticking with their patrons and quite happy about it.

Meghan is still the patron of SmartWorks, the charity which helps low-income women get professional clothes for job interviews and their jobs. In 2019, Meghan created the Smart Set capsule collection to fill out the SmartWorks collection with some basic pieces like black trousers, a white button-down blouse, etc. Now Meghan has sent some lucky SmartWorks women personal notes, complete with her beautiful calligraphy penmanship. From SmartWorks’ IG:

In celebration of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, our Patron, The Duchess of Sussex took a moment to send some words of encouragement to a few of our clients.

Written by The Duchess, several personal notes were delivered to our centre earlier this week, and then dispatched to our clients, to give them that extra piece of encouragement as they return to the workplace.

The extract below was from a note sent to a client who recently got a job working in the health sector:

“I wanted to offer my personal congratulations on landing a new position in public health – I can’t think of anything more important right now. And I’m so pleased to know that Smart Works supported you in the lead-up to your successful job interview.”

Another of our clients received a little extra lift before her interview later this week;

“I wanted to write personally to wish you every success in your upcoming interview. While any interview can feel daunting, I know that Smart Works has enabled you with the confidence to thrive throughout the process” … “You’ll be amazing in your interview remember deep breath and be yourself.”

Throughout the month of March, Archewell Foundation, created by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, is encouraging people around the world to perform acts of compassion for women in their lives and communities.

[From SmartWorks’ IG]

I’m including the IG below so you can see Meghan’s pretty handwriting. What a lovely skill to have! I used to have nice penmanship – even in college, taking notes by hand, I had nice semi-cursive handwriting. But it’s a skill you sort of lose when you aren’t writing by hand all the time. Now my handwriting and my signature are practically illegible. Anyhoodle, Meghan is lovely and she clearly still cares a lot about this patronage. Fingers crossed she drops another capsule collection this year!

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and WENN.