From bought cards to bits of scrap papers. From “Dear friend” to fiance. From formal Happy Birthday to mushy wedding count downs. Two shoeboxes full of letters and notes linger from the 3 years of our courtship. We still remember the letter that started it all…
My husband is one year older than I am, but he graduated high school 2 years ahead of me because his birthday is in the beginning of September and mine is in the middle of December. He left for college and I went back to my junior year of school thinking I was better off without him around.
Then a strange thing happened. I missed him. How could that be? He was a thorn in my side, the pain in my neck, the itch that wouldn’t go away.
He had always been there. Then he was gone. We had barely talked to each other for years, but if I really needed something he helped me. I remember one teen outing in particular that was a rough night for me. Some things were going on, and he seemed to sense that I was having a rough time. I still don’t remember actually talking to each other; just doors held, dropped things picked up, small chilvarous actions that helped me through a night that still stands out as one of the roughest of my life.
So now he was off at college where there were lots of girls. It surely wouldn’t hurt to write him. I remember that I thought about it for almost a week before I sent the letter. I expected him to never write back and that would be that. In fact, I didn’t put my name on the envelope, only the address, just in case he saw my name and threw the letter out. When my letter turned up in his mailbox he was totally surprised. He thought that was my address, but never thought I would actually write to him. He remembers that he picked up his mail on the way to a class and had to wait to open it. He wrote back! That started a flurry of letters that continued when he came home around Christmas time. Every time I wrote he would write back. That is pretty incredible if you know my husband. He just doesn’t have the card/letter writing gene.
Neither of us can remember what that first letter said. My husband said that the letter itself was the amazing thing; the content was not important. I dug out the boxes trying to find that first letter [that was a job!] but didn’t see it. The notes revived some memories to share with you next time.
The links for the rest of the story are on My Romance page.
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How sad that you can’t find the first letter — but what a sweet love story that has come about anyway!
) I have all of our letters in a box, too. (oh, and my honey doesn’t seem to have the letter writing gene, either, which is probably another reason the notes/cards/letters are so special.) Since we’ve gone through a few TDYs and deployments (almost done with this one!!! 15 more days!!!), I’ve saved our letters from those times apart, too. It is always fun to read through them again 
)
Arlenes last blog post..Almost there!
It’s not too sad that I can’t find the first; I’m sure it was pretty bland.
It was fun to see the transformation from friend to fiance written in the letters.
I think that I have pretty much all of our letters – the love at first sight thing kind of made their importance obvious from the beginning. My grandparents, however, wrote each other while he fought in Europe during WWII and don’t have a single one since they weren’t oficially a couple until after he came back. That kills me.
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Oh, that is disappointing! They would be amazing. You could have posted them on a blog.
How romantic!! I know I have some letters somewhere from summers during college that my husband and I were apart… hmmm I should dig them out!
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Yes, do dig. They might provide some blog fodder.
Wow, that was a wonderful love story. This days love story goes only on dating online. Yours was unique.
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Thank you!
That is cute! I have never really heard the back story to your courting and getting married so I love reading about it!