Readers respond to saving old letters

Dear Readers: “Upset Daughter” wrote to me, saying that her 90-year-old mother had old letters from her father that she was considering shredding. Upset and her sister wanted their mother to let them read the letters, and they asked my opinion. I made a case for sharing and preser ving these letters, written while their father was in the Navy.

Some readers interpreted my enthusiasm over preser ving old letters as an exhor tation that Upset should pressure her mother. Absolutely not. These letters belong to the recipient and their disposition should be completely up to her.

I received many responses, and today’s column is devoted to them.

Dear Amy: My father ser ved in the Navy in WWII. He passed away in 1985, my mother in 1999. When she knew her time was nearing, she handed me a box of airmail letters, written by both during that time. There were cutouts in the letters, as they were censored for security purposes, and they also contained references to the musical ar tists and movies of the time, and just how “swell” things were back then!

What a treasure to have, and to know of the love they once had for each other, (but never seemed to display when my brothers and I were growing up). It gave me peace to know that they really did love each other at one time. — Grateful

Dear Amy: I came across my parents’ love letters while cleaning out their home. My dad served during World War II, then often traveled the country looking for work, all this time corresponding with Mom.

My mother treasured these letters for 70 years.

I never read all of them, and didn’t want to. They weren’t all sweet and rosy. There were miscarriages, extreme financial hardships, and family turmoil. These letters were personal, private correspondences between my parents.

When my parents passed, they were both cremated and buried in the same vault, along with their love letters. It was the perfect ending. —At

Peace

Dear Amy: Maybe “Upset Daughter’s” mom considers these letters too personal for someone else to read. I and my husband of 45 years have saved nearly three years of correspondence from the years prior to our moving in together.

Even though I haven’t read them in ages, I know some are “racy,” and all are ver y personal!

Though it might be interesting to read the love letters of a gay couple from that time period, I’m not sure I want my nieces and nephews reading these emotionally intimate letters. — Preferring Privacy

Dear Amy: My parents are long since gone, and two of my dearest possessions are treasures that my mom saved.

One is a poem she wrote while dad was overseas during WWII. It wasn’t racy, but it did mention “sex,” which is probably the only time my sweet mom (mother of six) uttered the word.

The other is my dad’s pocket diar y. It had a picture of my mom and the kids—afewnamesofhis comrades — and a note saying he had his orders for home, thanking a God he had almost stopped believing in!

My other prized possession is a book compiled by a second cousin containing hundreds of letters written by my great-greatgrandfather to his beloved wife as he struggled with life as a stretcher bearer and medic with the Ohio 34th Regiment during the Civil War!

He wrote her almost daily with things sometimes trivial, often dire, complete with accountings of where they were at the time and who his commanding officers were. Some letters dutifully paid homage to those lives lost that day. Nearly ALL of them signed with the same closing, which appropriately became the book’s title: “In Love and Fidelity.” — George Sprecher.