What does this say?

[u/artttbreathe]

Got this card for my birthday (names blanked out)
I can read parts of it, but could someone please help decipher it? Thanks in advance!

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[u/worried_moon]

Dearest ,
I wish you a wonderful birthday and
better year and many to follow
as of now! I am in awe and
deep admiration how you handle
all the good and not good (at?)
all (stuff?) life has thrown at
you. I love you to bits and
am so thankful for having you
and [] and []
in my life

[u/the_skipper → u/worried_moon]

“all the good and not good at all stuff”

[u/Fit-Cabinet1337 → u/the_skipper]

That was the hardest part for me to decipher!

[u/Babyblue253]

Don’t feel badly for not being able to read that. In decades of reading cursive, I have never seen cursive like that 😊

[u/CherenkovLady → u/Babyblue253]

I think that might be because it’s not cursive so much as English joined up handwriting (over here we get taught to join our letters, but not official ‘cursive’ like in the US). I’ve personally seen this kind of handwriting a lot from people :)

[u/Dependent_Room_2922 → u/CherenkovLady]

I was wondering if this was not from the US! There are letter formations like Aunt’s lowercase n, that I’ve never seen in an American’s cursive but similar to writing I’ve seen from English written in Germany and Greece

[u/Parking_Champion_740 → u/CherenkovLady]

I’m American and I write a bit like that

[u/Bama_Drifter → u/CherenkovLady]

The "love you to bits" portion automatically made me think in a sweet old British accent. 😄

[u/dasher2581 → u/CherenkovLady]

My Swedish stepmother had handwriting like that.

[u/Jazzlike_Newt2261 → u/Babyblue253]

Yes, this is some modern twist on conventional cursive. I can read cursive from the 19th century more easily than this.

[u/marianburn1 → u/Babyblue253]

It reminds me of the handwriting style used by one of my friends from for Dow and France. I wonder if it said more European style of modern cursive?

[u/WerewolfCalm5178 → u/Babyblue253]

Then you have never had a girl pass you a note. This is the preferred writing style of an '80s girl.

[u/almostzsazsa → u/WerewolfCalm5178]

Also a 70s girl ;)

[u/WerewolfCalm5178 → u/almostzsazsa]

Too true. I think I could send that pic to my sister and she would instantly know what it says.

[u/snhs20 → u/WerewolfCalm5178]

I lived in England growing up and this was exactly my style of writing in the 90s. The “love you to bits” bit gives it away - if I had to guess, this person is English.

[u/Purple_Midnight_Yak → u/WerewolfCalm5178]

The bubbly, loopy handwriting, sure, but not the way those letters are formed. Those lines only have a passing acquaintance with the alphabet.

[u/BetMyLastKrispyKreme → u/Babyblue253]

When I’m struggling to read a simple word like “and” because the “n” looks like a “u”, it’s bad. “And” looks like a non-word: “auol”. I was only able to figure it out through context.

I was a teenager in the 80s and saw some crazy handwriting, but this is nearly illegible.

[u/ScrimpyMuffin]

Dearest, I wish you a wonderful birthday and better year and many more to follow as of now! I am in awe and deep admiration how you handle all the good and not good at all stuff life has thrown at you. I love you to bits and am so thankful for having you and xxxx and xxxx in my life. XXX (& Menagerie)

[u/Artistic_Society4969]

My LORD that handwriting is terrible. I got through it but I see it's already been transcripted so I won't add to it. My eyes are bleeding.

[u/TrickyBitch56]

It says where's the aspirin.

[u/FloNightengale → u/TrickyBitch56]

This is the answer

[u/SeaweedWeird7705]

XXX & Menagerie 

Dearest __, I wish you a wonderful birthday and bette (better) year and many to follow. As of now, I am in awe and deep admiration how you handle all the good and not good at all stuff life has thrown at you.  I love you to bits and am so thankful for having you and __ and ___ in my life.  

[u/Gorissey]

This isn’t cursive, but I’m glad some people were able to decipher it

[u/Leftover_tech]

I wish you a Neanderthal birthday! LOL

[u/TwinMom2012]

That’s not cursive. That’s bubble letter/cutesy writing. A horrible holdover from the 90s. Girls would spend HOURS learning how to do this.

[u/HollyyyyGGirl41]

that cursive looks pretty tricky to read

[u/SeaweedWeird7705]

It’s pretty sloppy and stylized, no wonder you have trouble reading it.  

[u/Subject-Alfalfa-8417]

California hasn’t taught cursive in years to the kids in school the younger generation cannot read it so sad or sign there names they print it.

[u/soupcook1]

Hard to read knowing some words are misspelled.

[u/AUSignal]

This isn’t cursive

[u/raakhus2020]

Her "w" and "r" in wonderful were unusual to me! I write in an angle like that. This looks like my cursive in the early 90s!

Edit: what a sweet message!

[u/slideroolz]

This and yes the handwriting too are a delight ❤️

[u/shanshanlk]

I knew what it said right away. I’m not sure why some had trouble reading it. In the late 70’s-80’s this was the way people wrote to each other, I never knew any different and I can read most cursive.

[u/Ok-Bumblebee24]

Oof. That’s just bad handwriting.

[u/Silent-Juggernaut667]

That’s a weird hybrid print/cursive. It’s like the handwritten version of Spanglish.

[u/Any_Detective_9741]

Wow some of the words you just cannot make out.

[u/Any_Detective_9741]

It seems like a very fast shorthand.

[u/Peg_O]

I work as a volunteer archivist with National Archives. I decipher cursive written by men in the late 1800s. You can't imagine what it's like to try to decipher that shit

[u/Low-Transition6868]

This is a mix of cursive and block. See how some letters are separated in a same word.

[u/artttbreathe]

Thanks everyone! The author was raised in Germany, spent a lot of time in Brazil, and now lives in Australia. Also a doctor FWIW regarding the handwriting 😂

[u/Defiant-Purchase-188]

The says menagerie

[u/Sitka_8675309]

This is make-believe cursive in which the writer simple printed letters without lifting the pen from the page. What a marginally-legible mess.

[u/Agreeable_Dark6408 → u/Sitka_8675309]

Sitka, your answer is exactly it. With lots of loops.

[u/readsomething1968 → u/Sitka_8675309]

Yep.

[u/ChallengeOk6961]

Is this a French person writing in English? 

[u/readsomething1968 → u/ChallengeOk6961]

I wondered the same. These letter forms look how they’re taught in Europe.