ST. LOUIS • Never underestimate the power of a few kind words.

Ally Dixon, 21, has a baby girl on the way. She has a pretty name picked out: Joelle Eliza, the Eliza for Elijah in the Bible. She has the due date: Jan. 12. Her boyfriend is excited to be a dad and a breadwinner to support them.

But she also has her worries. She has no family in town. Her mom died when she was 14. And she’s been mostly on her own since moving from California to Kirkwood when she was 17.

“I’m kind of just floating, and I’m just nervous,” she said.

Recently she got a homemade gift from a stranger that didn’t cost a dime. Yet it made her feel like she was part of a community of women, so much so that she burst out: “Pregnant women unite.”

It was a letter of encouragement penned by a volunteer through a new initiative in St. Louis called “Letters of Love.”

“When I got it, I was like, ‘A letter for me? Really?’” Dixon said. “I got this letter that said, ‘You’re the glue and you’ve got to keep it together,’ and it spoke to me. And she didn’t even know me. It felt good to know there are other women that think like you, and you’re not alone.”