438th AAA AW BN
APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
England
9 April, 1944 1030
Dearest darling Wilma –
Easter Sunday – and a bad day here. It’s really a shame, too, for there have been so many nice days recently. Easter Sunday – and the war in Europe is still on – contrary to prognosticators, seers, dreamers, et al. We’ve now passed Christmas and are passing Easter and I wonder when the next time limit will be announced. There’s only one hope I have of an unexpected break in the war and that is the way the last war ended. Right up to the end – no one suspected anything – and then suddenly it was over. Maybe the same will occur this time.
Meanwhile, sweetheart, in the midst of all this waiting and lonesomeness – I am completely happy, content, satisfied and relaxed – and it’s all due to you, darling, and to what has happened to us in this past Summer, Winter and Spring. To have dreamed that it could happen would have been truly only dreaming, and I still have to reassure myself, dear, from time to time that things are as they are between us. It almost doesn’t seem possible that we could have met as we did and then carry on just as if I were still around. And yet when I think it over – as I am doing continuously it seems – there’s no doubt in my mind that all this would have happened had I stayed around. I knew I loved you when I left and I would have followed up that love to its natural conclusion. And that’s what makes our becoming engaged so real, sensible and natural – despite its unusual aspect.
Sweetheart – I got your letter of March 28 – yesterday – which is the first time in a long while that the mail service in this direction has been so good. I also heard from my dad – letter written on the same day – and both letters were the ones I had been waiting for. They told me what I wanted to know – and believe me, dearest, last month was really a long long month for me.
I don’t know how to describe my own reactions. It’s all so new to me. For the past half dozen years or more – all around me my friends were getting engaged, attached, married etc – and I just seemed to be by the wayside – watching the passing parade. Nothing was happening to me. Now that it is, I can hardly make myself believe that it is I who is involved this time. I would undoubtedly find it novel and exciting were I home to enjoy its realities; you can imagine then, darling what a mixture of emotion I’m having when my fiancée, mine, mind you – is 3000 miles away, and when I don’t have the pleasure of being with her, or of seeing the happiness of her folks and mine. But your letters, dear, are vivid – and I’m getting the picture of what’s going on back home – and I can repeat only – that I’ve never been happy before – the way I am now. To have our folks feel the way they do about the whole thing – is added blessing. From my father’s letter it is obvious that they’re thrilled and happy. I believe they always worried about what would happen to me – alone in Salem, and to have me meet and become engaged to as lovely a girl as you are – must make them feel beside themselves with joy. I hope, darling, that your folks are as pleased about it as my folks are.
What follows from here, darling, is detail. By now I know my dad must have purchased a ring. I don’t know his taste. I hope only that it is one you like and will be proud to wear. I don’t know either when you will start wearing it. Darling – when you do – know this: that for me it signifies all that is good and noble between two people who are pledged to marry, that it is my promise that I am for you alone, for always, and that in my mind and heart it is a token of my desire to be your husband – one day – and to assume the loyalty, responsibility, devotion – and love that a husband should have for a wife. For me, dear, the ring is a symbol of all that’s to come and may the Lord bless us and help us fulfill what I feel.
So long for now, Sweetheart; be well, my love to the folks – and by our engagement – whenever it is – you have made me enduringly happy, no matter what lies ahead.
Easter Sunday – and a bad day here. It’s really a shame, too, for there have been so many nice days recently. Easter Sunday – and the war in Europe is still on – contrary to prognosticators, seers, dreamers, et al. We’ve now passed Christmas and are passing Easter and I wonder when the next time limit will be announced. There’s only one hope I have of an unexpected break in the war and that is the way the last war ended. Right up to the end – no one suspected anything – and then suddenly it was over. Maybe the same will occur this time.
Meanwhile, sweetheart, in the midst of all this waiting and lonesomeness – I am completely happy, content, satisfied and relaxed – and it’s all due to you, darling, and to what has happened to us in this past Summer, Winter and Spring. To have dreamed that it could happen would have been truly only dreaming, and I still have to reassure myself, dear, from time to time that things are as they are between us. It almost doesn’t seem possible that we could have met as we did and then carry on just as if I were still around. And yet when I think it over – as I am doing continuously it seems – there’s no doubt in my mind that all this would have happened had I stayed around. I knew I loved you when I left and I would have followed up that love to its natural conclusion. And that’s what makes our becoming engaged so real, sensible and natural – despite its unusual aspect.
Sweetheart – I got your letter of March 28 – yesterday – which is the first time in a long while that the mail service in this direction has been so good. I also heard from my dad – letter written on the same day – and both letters were the ones I had been waiting for. They told me what I wanted to know – and believe me, dearest, last month was really a long long month for me.
I don’t know how to describe my own reactions. It’s all so new to me. For the past half dozen years or more – all around me my friends were getting engaged, attached, married etc – and I just seemed to be by the wayside – watching the passing parade. Nothing was happening to me. Now that it is, I can hardly make myself believe that it is I who is involved this time. I would undoubtedly find it novel and exciting were I home to enjoy its realities; you can imagine then, darling what a mixture of emotion I’m having when my fiancée, mine, mind you – is 3000 miles away, and when I don’t have the pleasure of being with her, or of seeing the happiness of her folks and mine. But your letters, dear, are vivid – and I’m getting the picture of what’s going on back home – and I can repeat only – that I’ve never been happy before – the way I am now. To have our folks feel the way they do about the whole thing – is added blessing. From my father’s letter it is obvious that they’re thrilled and happy. I believe they always worried about what would happen to me – alone in Salem, and to have me meet and become engaged to as lovely a girl as you are – must make them feel beside themselves with joy. I hope, darling, that your folks are as pleased about it as my folks are.
What follows from here, darling, is detail. By now I know my dad must have purchased a ring. I don’t know his taste. I hope only that it is one you like and will be proud to wear. I don’t know either when you will start wearing it. Darling – when you do – know this: that for me it signifies all that is good and noble between two people who are pledged to marry, that it is my promise that I am for you alone, for always, and that in my mind and heart it is a token of my desire to be your husband – one day – and to assume the loyalty, responsibility, devotion – and love that a husband should have for a wife. For me, dear, the ring is a symbol of all that’s to come and may the Lord bless us and help us fulfill what I feel.
So long for now, Sweetheart; be well, my love to the folks – and by our engagement – whenever it is – you have made me enduringly happy, no matter what lies ahead.
All my truest love –
Greg.
No comments:
Post a Comment