Wartime letters are valued

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.

She and her sister wanted their mother to let them read the letters, and they asked my opinion. I made a case for sharing and preserving these letters, written while their father was in the Navy.

Some readers interpreted my enthusiasm for preserving old letters as an exhortation 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 served 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 artists 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: My parents are long since gone, and two of my dearest possessions are treasures 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 diary. It had a picture of my mom and the kids, a few names of his 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 cousin containing hundreds of letters written by my great- great- grandfather 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 paid homage to the 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

Dear Amy: My mother wrote to my father every day, except one — the day my sister was born — while he served in the Pacific during World War II.

He burned them all, along with the many he wrote, after she died when I was 16. It still hurts.

I hope “Upset’s” mother will save those letters.

Still Sad Son

Dear Amy: When my mom died last year, I found two letters she had written to my dad when he was on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam in 1967.

I was a baby, not yet walking at the time. Those letters gave me a glimpse into her life over 50 years before, and I found them to be a great treasure. Save the letters!

J. English