Sunday 1 September 2013

Pick your Precious - September

An army kit bag - crammed full of letters.  Letters that start like this

 {My loving angel Val Darling! Thank you darling a million times for another lovely, loving letter, received with much delight this morning}
 
and end like this
 
 
{Always
With every ounce of love I have
from your devoted, adoring, ever loving husband}
 
Every single letter that was exchanged between my Mum and Dad during the war.  The letters tell a story of a chance meeting when my Dad was moved from London and stopped off in Essex en route to his new barracks.  A romance conducted over long distance; infrequent meetings dependent on where he was stationed; planning a wedding for when he was back on leave; waiting for the war to end to take their proper honeymoon.  Plans, hopes and dreams. Long letters; you can see how the ink has weakened in colour between first and last page as his pen emptied. Handwritten and saved for posterity.
 
I haven't read too many as they are clearly personal and I don't want to intrude into that.   But every now and again I will pull one out and read a few lines.  Glimpses into a world so very different to ours nowadays.
 
In a strange coincidence, the letter I picked out for this project was postmarked Edinburgh 1944 - whoever would have guessed that my son would end up living in the city where the grandfather he never met, and who he is named after, was stationed for a while almost 70 years ago?

This post is part of Sian's Storytelling Sunday series.  Pop over there and see what other precious items are being shared this month.

21 comments:

Jen said...

Oh my - those are really, really precious letters. A very beautiful story - thank you for sharing, and sometimes I think that "coincidence" is just what is meant to be. J x

Missus Wookie said...

Definitely a precious, something lost I think when the correspondence is all electronic these days.

Abi said...

What a treasure to have and what a beautiful way he signed them.

Ruth said...

Oh, my goodness, what a treasure you have there! Perhaps you should consider having them published in a book? Social historians, the Imperial War Museum and the like would bite your hand off!

Sian said...

What a lovely coincidence, which of course made me smile today :) That's a very precious cache indeed: it feels like a privilege to have a peep of it. Thinking about Ruth's comment..or maybe even a novel? You could weave a new story with the letters as a basis I bet

Ladkyis said...

I am in the process of transcribing letters that myparents saved from various members of the family. I will then deposit the originals with the local archives together with the transcriptions and a potted history of our family. Why? because they are ordinary people and history doesn't seem to save much stuff about ordinary people. I have the letters that my mother wrote to my father but I haven't found the ones he wrote to her - I often wonder why.

Melissa said...

How wonderful that you have these letters, precious mementos of a love story from years ago.

Cheri said...

How fun to have that piece of family history!

Sheena said...

What a wonderful precious they are x

Sinead said...

Wow, these letters really are very precious! Thank you for letting us look at this special part of your family history x

Becky said...

Gosh, these really are precious. Thanks for letting us share a glimpse of them :)

Mel said...

You should get them copied and bound into a book as it will probably be more durable. Love letters are so much more romantic than texts or emails!

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

What a wonderful thing to have! I have postcards my Nan & Pap exchanged during WWII while he was on a sub in the Pacific and she was trying to buy a house for them & my mom in WV.

Alison said...

What a truly wonderful 'precious'......TFS!
Alison xx

Anonymous said...

Oh Deb what an absolutely wonderful treasure to have. I'm afraid, that unlike you I would have read them all.

Amy said...

Just recently my mother came across many letters her grandfather had written, and received, during WW1. Having seen the ones in our possession I can truly appreciate what these letters mean to your family - utterly precious!

Fiona@Staring at the Sea said...

How wonderful to be the keeper of those letters, so full of love.

Jo said...

It's so lovely that you have those letters, ,they are very precious indeed x

Susanne said...

What a treasure trove. I can understand you're being hesitant to intrude too much on the love affair, but then again I don't know how you've resisted to read every last word.

Jane said...

how very special, something to be treasured

Beverly said...

How lucky you are to have something so very precious. I would keep them just as they are, cherish them just as you do and leave them for the next generation.