About These Letters

After both my grandparents had passed on, it fell to me to be the one to clean out the family home and get it ready to sell. I discovered these letters in an old box I found in the back of the barn. Fortunately, my grandmother had packed the box in a trunk she had stored in the loft. High off the floor and away from the damp and mildew that sometimes settles in an old barn, they were kept safe and dry.

My grandmother never told me about the letters. I don’t think she even remembered she had them. I was just lucky enough to open the trunk and find the box before the movers had a chance to take it away.

There are nearly 400 letters in all. Each one kept in its original envelope. They are all written from my grandfather to my grandmother and span the years 1942 to 1945. His first letter was written the night he enlisted in the Army Air Force and was shipped out to boot camp. The last letter was written just after he was discharged from service.

There are no letters from my grandmother to him, but it is easy to imagine her response to his letters by “reading between the lines.” They were two people, very much in love, separated by war and eager to start a new life together once the fighting was done.

My grandfather was young and inexperienced about life, eager for the adventure of war but terrified by it too, and it’s clear he was deeply in love with my grandmother and did not hesitate to write out his feelings. The letters are filled with his longing for her and the life they would one day live together.

Whenever he was able, he wrote about his training, the location and the war as he knew it. Censorship was very strict, and the letters are often filled with little cut out spaces where a word or phrase was actually snipped out of the paper. But there are a lot of historical hints in the letters to give the reader a sense of what was happening.

These letters are a treasure and too precious to just disregard or burn. Yes, they are the private correspondence between two lovers, but those lovers have passed on. I believe the letters are worth reading. We need to not forget what life was like for those who lived during those years. Called upon to leave home and sacrifice all that they had: dreams, hopes and loves in order to save the world from the mad men of Europe and Asia and their ambitions to control the world.

Some have called those who lived these years, “The Greatest Generation.” After reading these letters, I believe that comes close to the truth.

These are truly, love letters home.

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ABBrooks, Editor

All the letters are protected by U.S. copyright law and are not available for reproduction or redistribution in any form without my written permission. You may contact me via email: editor@lovelettershome.com