Hi, I hope you can help me out, thanks for reading this. I have been working for an elderly woman for years, and her recommendation and status would be essential to my application (she knows me very well and has a lot of good things to say). I am only a sophomore now, and unfortunately, she has recently declined in health. She wishes to write me a letter as of now, in case she is unable to in two years when I prepare my application. As far as i know, recommendations are submitted online, so how would this work? I wouldn’t be writing it for her. Please help me understand the process!
She can still write one for you but it will just have to be mailed to the colleges as an optional recommendation, not a teacher one.
How nice that she wants to write a recommendation for you! She doesn’t need to submit it on line. She can write it, make copies, and seal each copy in a separate envelope (assuming she wants to keep it confidential. That isn’t a requirement either.) You can address and mail the envelopes later, one you know what schools you are applying to. But, as TheDidactic mentioned, her letter is in addition to, not instead of the teacher recs and the rec from your guidance counselor.
@N’s Mom Okay great! Thanks for the info, I had no idea anything was mailed anymore! 
Yeah, well pony express and pigeon have fallen out of favor since I was applying to colleges, but the US Postal Service is hanging in there.