The Love Letters

Rose Bigham

The Love Letters

It had been a week since Caley’s mother passed away. Now she sat in her mom’s dusty attic with creaky floor boards, looking at stacks of boxes and forgotten remnants of days gone by. Each one a potential treasure of memories and history. The air held a musty odor, and she felt the weight of memories, whispers of laughter and tears, of birthdays and Christmases past.

She approached an old army chest she saw in the corner and tried to blow the dust off the top. She realized that the chest had belonged to her mother’s brother Alfred. He had joined the army during the second world war. Upon his return, stayed at the house for several months, and when he left, the chest stayed behind. Growing up, Caley always enjoyed it when Uncle Alf came to visit. He would often tell stories from the days of his younger years and life on the prairies.

As she began looking through the chest, she found a canteen, binoculars, and an army helmet with netting all over it. She thought about how horrible the experience must have been and understood why he never talked about it. As a child, she didn’t understand. As she kept looking through the old chest, she found a mysterious box tied with a red ribbon. Inside that box, were old letters tied together with another red ribbon. Her heart started to pound with excitement as she pondered the possibilities of what the letters contained. She did know that before her uncle left for the army, he had a girl. But duty called, and he went off to war in the hopes that she would wait for him. Upon his return, he discovered that she had gotten engaged to someone else while he was gone. Heartbroken, he lived the life of a bachelor until he was in his seventies.

Caley untied the ribbon and opened the first letter. The paper had yellowed with age. She was expecting the letter to belong to her Uncle Alf, but it did not belong to him at all -- it belonged to her mother. It was dated January 10, 1940. As she read the letter, she thought it to be from her father, but it was not.

My Dearest Agnes,

I hope this letter finds you well. I so long to hold you in my arms again. I miss you terribly. I think about you every night and dream about the time we will be together again. This war will not diminish my love for you. I look up at the stars and wonder if at any time we are looking at the same one. Knowing I will come home to you, keeps me going. You are in my heart always.

You have all my love,

George

George? Who was George? She did not recall her mother ever mentioning anyone by that name. Then she read a second letter dated April 01, 1940.

Dearest Agnes,

I hope you are doing well. I miss you so much. I wish I could be there for your birthday. I hope this letter reaches you in time, so you know that I remembered. You are my light in the darkness I face here. Know that I am well, and I think of you everyday.

I love you with all my heart.

George

As she read more of the letters, she could feel that they were very much in love. The letters spanned over several years and they were planning on a future together when he got back. Each letter felt more emotional than the one before. The last letter that she read was dated January 12, 1943.

My Darling Agnes,

I hope you are doing well. This war has no end. It is breaking my heart that we cannot be together. You know I love you, and how much I do, but I can’t keep expecting you to put your life on hold for me any longer. You need to have someone who is there by your side, not on the other side of the world. I will always love you.

George

Caley was in tears as she read the last letter. She could feel how much receiving that letter would have hurt her mom.

She took the box with her and went downstairs to the living room. The room was fairly empty as most of the furniture had been given away to charity. There was a large blue Persian rug on the floor, that her much older sister Shirley sat on while she was going through a bunch of books from a large built-in bookcase. Caley sat on the rug beside her sister and showed her the box of letters.

“Shirley, Uncle Alf left an army chest upstairs in the attic. When I opened it, I found a small box with some love letters inside. Mom never mentioned anyone by the name of George that I can remember. Do you know who he was?”

“George was mom’s first love. She didn’t talk about him much, but she did tell me that he was a young soldier, and that they met at the beginning of the war. They spent a lot of time together in the months before he got sent overseas. It sounded pretty serious, but he broke up with her a couple of years later in a letter. Mom was devastated." Shirley continued, “She tried to forget him, but it was hard. She did finally move on, though, and started seeing other people. Then she eventually met dad. They married and began having a family. Even though she loved dad, a part of her heart had always belonged to George. One day after the war had ended, she was in town, and he ran into him. He told her he had never married, and still loved her.”

Caley’s eyes widened. “So, what happened to George? What did mom do? Why didn’t they get married?”

“It was a very painful moment for her. By this time, she had already married dad. They went for coffee and told each other about their lives. She was going to stay faithful to dad. George told her that he tried to move on, but never could. When he got back from the war, he searched for her but by the time he found her, she had already married someone else. She felt like she was reliving the hurt she felt when they had broken up.”

A tear ran down Caley’s cheek, “Neither one ever got over the other. Maybe that’s why mom seemed a little sad sometimes. Sometimes I would see her just staring out the window, deep in thought. I wonder if she was thinking about George. Wondering where he was and what his life was like. And wondering if he still thought about her. I didn’t know any of this. Did mom ever tell dad about him?”

“Yes, she did. Dad was a good man. He was a little hurt, but he understood the war was a tough time for everyone and a lot of relationships suffered. He knew that she loved him, and he appreciated her honesty in telling him.”

"Why didn't she ever tell me?" Caley asked, her voice quivering.

"She wanted to move on," Shirley said, wiping away her tears. "She thought it was best to keep that part of her life buried.”

“I’m glad a know now though. I got to share her experience and see mom as a young girl in love. I feel like I’ve gotten to know her better.”

The End