Wartime Love Letters

The Disclaimer

This story really isn't a story - its a memoir. It's a memoir to my grandparents and this part of their lives.

What you are about to read are true to life, honest-to-goodness letters penned by my grandparents to each other during World War II. The description of this story is true.

The Second World War is affecting the entire world. In rural upstate New York, a young couple's life changes when the US starts implementing the draft. He is sent to a navy ship; she is left at home to take care of their 8-year-old son alone. Nearly 80 years after the war, their real-life story is told thru the discovery of their wartime love letters to one another. Bringing back to life this time in history, their story and their love

You see, my grandfather died very young, in his late 50's several years before I was even born. I never got to meet him, to get to know him and to see the love my grandparents had for each other. She lived until she was almost 100 years old and never knew another man. For more than 50 years of her life she lived without him.

I was curious about my grandfather but never really had the guts to ask her about him. I was afraid it would cause her sadness. So, I let it be. However, upon her passing, in the many things she left behind were these letters. Stacks and stacks of letters, most of them still in their original envelopes with the time and date stamps as well.

As the story goes, according to my father, his mother forbade him from reading the letters so he offered them to me. Over the past few years I have removed them from their envelopes and placed them all in chronological order by date. His letters to her and her letters to him. Now mind you, at that time in history letters took a long time to get to each other so these really weren't answer and responses type of letters. If a question was asked in one, it would be many letters (dated) later when the answer may be given. They will see off synced. However, you will get to see what her life was like without him raising their 8-year-old-son and his life as a newly drafted member of the US Navy going to war.

These letters are full of not only history of the times (the way they spoke, the things they did, listened to etc.) but also full of the history of the love of my grandparents. With this - I will try to add links and other data that you can look at or listen to when they are referenced in their letters for a more broader experience.

I can't promise this will be drama filled, passionate type of reading - what I can promise is reality. These were their words, their thoughts and their love.

Here are a few disclaimers:

The names of my grandparents and their specific address (in New York) I have changed. Since my grandmother didn't even want my father to read them, let alone have me put them out for the whole world to see, I just felt it was better to keep that part close to home. However, this is all that I have changed. The name of the depot where my grandfather trained, the name of the ship and the ports he ended up in I have not changed (since that would take away from the history part of the story)

My motivation to transcribe these letters was to not only preserve their history, but be apart of preserving that time, in general, of history before it is forgotten. We live our lives and pass on from the this life and many of us just become a memory. The way life was for past generations gets generally becomes skewed, remembered differently, or retold incorrectly than what was the reality. This was my way of preserving both their lives and this history written in words from them, themselves in a time when they lived it.

Since I am simply transcribing these letters. I will not be "correcting them" They will have punctuation, grammatical and spelling errors, to keep it true.

I hope you enjoy this journey we will be taking together, getting a glimpse into what life was like in the mid-1940's through the eyes of a young American couple separated by World War II.

To my family members - I did this so you can read this too, if you desire. This is a wonderful and magical way to know more about our history.