If teaching is the purpose, the comment has no real purpose. I am aware of close votes, their purpose, and I don't feel I abused it. It is an edge case where positives outweighed the negatives, which I see none, until I am enlightened over the *why* of it.
It put the burden of reopening on the community, rather the moderators which should handle equally opposed and supported cases anyway.
Gives the voters a chance to re-evaluate their close vote, assuming that retracting is not a common practice.

I don't see backup for that: "The only "solution" is to actually be brave and politely ask either your brother or sister-in-law (whomever you feel safest with dealing with). If it feels safer or is just easier for you, you can just text a simple "Hey! I was wondering if [name] liked the present I sent him. Did he?" Avoid anything that sounds like you're angry. If they're smart, they will get the message that someone should have said something (like thank you), if they're not, you may at least get an acknowledgement that he received it. "