Love Letters of a Young Couple, now in PDF format!

Hello all,

I know some of you talked about getting the book I put together of Love Letters, so here they are in PDF format so you don’t need a kindle, you can look at them on your computer. You can change the size of the PDF so you can read it better as well. They are large files because each on has over 100 pages of letters in it. Here are the links;

Love Letters of a Young Couple, The Early Years

Love Letters of a Young Couple, Part2:1942 to 1944

As I was going through the love letters of my parents I decided to post some of them on my blog. I wanted the readers to appreciate the authenticity of the letters so I thought it would be best for you, the reader, to experience seeing the actual letters. It turned out that these were a big hit so I decided to put them together in a book for everyone read. This is something that I wanted to share with the world. You will enjoy this collection of love letter because it will remind you that teenagers are almost the same no matter what year it is. I hope you enjoy reading how Thelma was so passionate in her writing to Nick, her soon to be husband. 

I think you will enjoy both collections. Let me know what you think.

Wade

Love Letter Thoughts

Putting together these letters was something I really enjoyed doing. It was a way to honor my parents with their actual love story that they wrote out.

These letters remind me how vibrant and loving my mother was as a teenager. I know how she was as my mother. I knew her as a caring and loving person. She was strong and stubborn but had a good moral value of what was right and wrong. That is the woman I know. She could make almost anyone smile and would take a sincere interest in almost anyone she talked to. She would remember their conversations for a long time.

When I read through these letters I realize that she too was a teenager full of puppy love. Someone who was still learning her way in the world and hoping to have a soul mate to spend the rest of her life with. It’s amazing how most of us think that times are so different now but I know so many people looking for the same thing.

Love is a common denominator that most everyone needs. They wish to find love in someone or something. As young children we think we fall in love with anyone or anything. As we get older we become more guarded and let our beliefs get in the way. Somewhere we lose the passion for simple things that can bring us joy.

Just my thoughts for today. Do me a favor and like my Love Letters Facebook page and take a look at my book on Kindle, both books USA or UK  Book 1 and UK book 2.

Twitter Handle @ParentsLuvLttrs

Thankful for the time together

Did you ever go into a bad situation and think about how to be thankful? I have to tell you I went to visit my mother the other day and it was all I could do. For those of you that don’t know she has dementia and it is in the late stages. She had no idea who I was. She is wheelchair confined because she can’t get up and she is mentally lost. She is around 90 years old, and it is hard to visit her this way. I stayed for over an hour but let me tell you it wasn’t easy.

She is just not aware of what is going on but she wasn’t very talkative. It is hard on days like this. It makes you want to run away. She did let me hold her hand which was nice. There was no conversation. She could not even comprehend what I was talking about. She looked at me like I was a complete stranger. One thing I learned to do was bring up the past, old relatives who were long since dead, but even this did not work. She was completely oblivious to that and didn’t seem to know anything I was talking about.

The one thing that helped me through the time with her was the fact I remember what she was like and all the good times we had together. It sounds crazy but I still can sit with her and think of what she was like when I was young. I can remember all the advice she gave me when I would be growing up. I still how she would cook for us and what Sunday afternoons were like. She would often make fried chicken on Sundays for lunch. She would make sure we had plenty to eat. I was able to look at her and appreciate the past, the woman I remember.

You may think this is trivial but at some point of your life this will be a cherished memory. I really am grateful for all the memories that I have. I know she lost her memories but I still have mine so I thank God every day for them.

One thing mom did while she was younger was write things down in a diary and keep them. She saved all those old letters she received. Some of them I don’t understand but the others mean so much to me. I am glad that I have those memories and that I was able to keep them.

Pictures are a great thing as well. It lets me look back on her life and see how they lived before I was born, so interesting. I get to see the woman she was and the woman I remember. I can’t change the present but I can cherish the past.

Thank you for listening and please, take some time to learn about dementia, especially if you know someone who has it.

Most people don’t’ appreciate old letters, stories, and diaries that were saved, but I do.

I am thankful for the time I had with her, no regrets! If we can think this way and appreciate people for who they are, then we are doing something right!

Losing power!

So where I live I just lost power for over 30 hours. I complained but after an ice storm there isn’t much you can do, except maybe move. We were lucky because I remember how many people in the northeast lost power for weeks last year. It is a major inconvenience, but we were OK thanks to my fireplace! We kept it burning all night and day and we did alright. I had to go somewhere else to work because I work from home but I need the Internet to do it. So I worked in a coffee shop in a grocery store where they had hot tea and free internet. Not to mention some awesome eclair. 

I thought about this experience, and when my parents first got married power was a luxury. You had to plan for winter, and if you did have power then it wasn’t stable. Can you imagine, maybe the lights will stay on during a storm, but probably not. You just had lamps and candles and kept the  fire burning. 

So this is how they lived, oh, let’s not forget that when they dated they didn’t have indoor plumbing. So, raining and snowing and very cold, they had to go to the bathroom outside! In the cold, so when you did your business, you didn’t mess around! To the outhouse and then back to the fire. Can you imagine that this is normal? Well back then it was normal, the normal way of life. 

So they also had to have plenty of food somewhere near the house. Most people had cold cellars to keep the food in. They also kept water on the fire all day. My mom had a propane stove, even back then, to keep the food warm. My aunt had a coal stove, which she cooked on even when I was growing up. Hot or cold, the stove was lit! Think about that! In the middle of summer she had a coal stove going to cook! 

So I quit complaining about the loss of power as I sat by my fire with the candles lit. I was so grateful for all that I had. I was in a nice house, warm, and I have plenty to eat and drink. Life is good! 

I often read the letters in my book to contemplate how hard it must have been back then for everyone!

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What was it like in the 1940s?

I have to tell you, I often read these old letters and wonder what it was like back in the late 30s and early 40s. I find it amazing that life was so different. I don’t just mean that there was no internet, but cars were different, income was different, and life was different. Indoor plumbing was a luxury, not a standard. Having a house was easier to build than buy. Having a car was a real plus. So many families only had one car, you didn’t just hop in your car, you had to plan your trip. Not everyone in the household worked unless they had a way to work. You didn’t have transportation like you do now. You didn’t always go to a store for food, you had to go to a shop, like a butcher shop or a farmer os somewhere to get the food. Not everyone had electricity, it was common, but not everywhere.

One big thing was that the mail was very important, it was a major means of communication! People really relied on the postal system to deliver written word to everyone. I think we all are forgetting how far our civilization has come in such a short period of time. Things are very different now.

One other thing that I remember my dad telling me, he couldn’t just go to high school. You needed written permission from you parents to go to high school. Now my dad went to a one room school but his father needed him on the farm, so anything past 8th grade was not permitted. Think about that, a society where it’s more important to work than finish school. Now kids expect their parents to pay for college even if they can’t afford it. Times have changed!

I just wanted to point out a few changes that I thought would interest some of you. Here are some pictures that you may like. Also, You can get my books here. Please like my page on Facebook.

 

My Aunt Esther and her smiling face.

I read an article about cancer, which it seems there are millions, and it made me think of my Aunt Esther. She died of pancreatic cancer. It was sudden and she lived with us her final 6 weeks of her life. Not to bring you down but let me tell you how she lived before I talk of her death.

Aunt Esther was the youngest on my mother’s side. My mother had 2 sisters and 1 brother. The girls were very close. They were Thelma, my mother who was the second oldest, Pearl, the oldest, and Esther, the youngest.  My mother’s brother was James. Now everyone call him Moon, including all of us. I don’t know why, they just did. My Mom’s nickname was Sis, and everyone in the family called her that except us kids, we called her mom.

So, this story is about Aunt Esther, the youngest. It was ironic that she was the first to die. She lived in her father’s house, after he died she was the only one there and she just stayed on the house. She didn’t do much to take care of it but it held together long enough for here to make a life there. She had a good life working for the state of Pennsylvania. She had an OK job with good benefits.

So anyway, let me tell you about her. She was a wonderful woman. She was always smiling. She was always so loving and friendly. I remember how much fun she was when I was you. She would be so playful and full of life. She knew everyone and would go around and talk to anyone. I really admired her energy and spirit. She would always crack jokes and be so friendly with people. She was a flirt too, let me tell you not many guys could pass her without saying hello, what a woman!

 

I really enjoyed my time with her, and I was very young. I was not even 10 and I would have so much fun being with her. She would take me around and show me off to her friends. “Here is my nephew, isn’t he cute?” she would say to almost everyone. She loved to be out and about people.

The other thing she did was smoke, like there was no tomorrow. She was definitely a chain smoker. I can’t remember her without a cigarette unless she was in my mother’s house. My mother hated smoking so no smoking in her house.

I had good times but I remember the last few weeks with Aunt Esther, she stayed with us because she could not take care of herself. My mother was happy to take her in. She needed care and we did what we could for her. She never let us know that she was in pain, but we could see it in her face. She would still smoke her cigarettes; she could not give them up. Is was sad but I think at that point she knew she would not make it. She was tough as well as lovable. You can be both!

She passed away in the hospital, after several operations. The doctors tried but everything they did just made her sicker and sicker. They couldn’t help her, if anything we felt as if it made her worse. I think they tried but they just didn’t know what to do.

My mother had a hard time getting over losing her younger sister. It was so hard on her. Since then, mom really hated cigarette, I mean hated them with a passion. It was so hard on my mother when she found out my sister smoked. It put a rift between them that lasted for years. I think mom just couldn’t stand the thought of losing a daughter. Luckily my sister is still around. My mom is here physically but mentally she is gone with dementia.

Anyway, I wanted to remember Aunt Esther, she had no husband or kids and no one else to remember her. I remember her and how great she was even though I was on about 11 at the time. I will never forget how great she really was. I loved her so much and still think of how friendly she was to this day.

If you have anyone you loved but lost while you were very young, maybe you can think of them and say a small prayer, thanking them for putting a smile on your face.

Another memory of my mother.

Hello all,

Just a quick thought.I was thinking about when my mother was younger. She was so full of life and so curious. Now, I came along later in her life but I still remember how she was interested in the news and my school work. It was interesting to her. She never missed an opportunity to look over my english or spelling. She was drawn to those subjects, although she did take an interest in science because it was all around us. She loved to learn about nature. She probably knew more than any book but she would still listen.

I remember there were time when I would read my mythology books to her. I loved to read about Greek and Roman mythology, it’s really cool! To this day I like them. She would listen and ask me questions about how the gods would do things. Now as a kid I thought it was all magic. She would try to put a magical spin on it and that kept it interesting to me. She would try to tie in nature and how the gods always appreciated nature. I am not sure how she got the two top go together but she found a way. I guess often times the stories were about not only how they acted with people but how the animals were affected by a god’s presence. I know, it’s a fun story to read, but my mom would make it more interesting by paying attention and putting a spin on it. I am glad she took the time to use her imagination to spark mine.

OK, present day, she doesn’t remember any of that. So I hold on to those old days. That’s why I wanted to take all the things I have and make them memorable somehow.

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Love Letters Between My Parents Book 1 

Love Letters Between My Parents Book 2 

Love Letter: From Mom to Dad on November 20th, 1941

This gallery contains 7 photos.

OK, hard to read so you will need to click on each one to read it. But they are cute! I am going to attempt to make a book out of these, there are over 70 letters between them. Probably 72 from mom and 5 from dad. What do you think?