Letters...
This week the mother of my church's secretary went to be with Jesus. I had met her a few times, but didn't know her well. She was a small, frail lady whose smile could light up a room whether you knew or her not. She had lived for awhile without her husband and was like my great-grandma who has been waiting to go home to be with him and Jesus. She met her husband back in 1942. It was a chance meeting in Des Moines, Iowa. They were then separated due to him being in the Navy and shipped off for the war. But they fell in love... through letters. She kept every single one of his letters. They had gone on one date before he left. And they fell in love, even got engaged, through their letters.
My dad did the funeral today and brought back the letters that were read explaining the love story of Gladys and Donald. He had me read after I got off work. I sat and just smiled. They were some of the most beautiful letters I have ever read. It was the most perfect love story. The type you read about in books. The type you dream about. They were the military love letters that you imagine from that day and time. I was honored to be allowed to read even a sampling of them. They were simply beautiful.
I have to admit that I write letters to my love. Have since we started dating. I have the ones that he has given to me in return. And as far as I know he has kept the ones I have given to him. Some of my favorite letters from him are the ones that he gave to me while I was in Peru. The night I got to see him before leaving the country, he handed me a stack of envelopes. One for each month anniversary for our dating relationship that we would be apart. Each letter had a picture of him and a funny note or sweet reminder of why we date and love each other. I have all of my letters sitting together in my desk drawer. A simple reminder always seen. I will never throw away those letters. I will never give them up. I will keep them. Until the day that Spence and I are separated by death.
Today, I saw the most beautiful symbol of a pure and simple love story. A story of how two people fell in love through letters. Not through dates, not through the internet, not through blind dates. But through letters. And I can't help but think of how my love story has bits of that woven in and out of it.
My dad did the funeral today and brought back the letters that were read explaining the love story of Gladys and Donald. He had me read after I got off work. I sat and just smiled. They were some of the most beautiful letters I have ever read. It was the most perfect love story. The type you read about in books. The type you dream about. They were the military love letters that you imagine from that day and time. I was honored to be allowed to read even a sampling of them. They were simply beautiful.
I have to admit that I write letters to my love. Have since we started dating. I have the ones that he has given to me in return. And as far as I know he has kept the ones I have given to him. Some of my favorite letters from him are the ones that he gave to me while I was in Peru. The night I got to see him before leaving the country, he handed me a stack of envelopes. One for each month anniversary for our dating relationship that we would be apart. Each letter had a picture of him and a funny note or sweet reminder of why we date and love each other. I have all of my letters sitting together in my desk drawer. A simple reminder always seen. I will never throw away those letters. I will never give them up. I will keep them. Until the day that Spence and I are separated by death.
Today, I saw the most beautiful symbol of a pure and simple love story. A story of how two people fell in love through letters. Not through dates, not through the internet, not through blind dates. But through letters. And I can't help but think of how my love story has bits of that woven in and out of it.
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| I took this while I was in Poland... such a beautiful image of love and marriage in my mind. |
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