Mom reading a LOVE LETTER from my Dad
that was received in 1959.
Over 50 years ago.
She read it to us after we got together for a Family gathering.
The letter was filled with news about what he had been doing,
what he had ate, what gasoline cost, where he was staying,
missing the whole family, mailing postcards to kids, etc.
He ended the letter by calling her his sweetheart.
She ended in tears.
You see Dad fell and broke his back in several places when he was 77. He is now 84. He stands at only about 5 feet tall these days...before he was close to 5' 9''. He has suffered through several back surgeries. Has to take pain medications. Seldom talks. Very quiet and it breaks my Mom's heart. He use to be very talkative and encouraging. Great sense of HUMOR. So quiet these days.
Hadn't heard the letter Mom read before. After hearing the letter addressed to his sweetheart, I heard a softer side to my Dad that loved his wife and four children. The letter was written when he had gone to start a new job in Liberal, Kansas and rentals were few. She stayed behind in Wichita till they could make living arrangements.
They'd borrow a very small trailer to park in a Trailer Park till a rental came available. After we lived in the green rental for a few months, they bought a small two bedroom house with basement. I was 4 years old.
And so life began for us as we knew it in Liberal.
I grew to liberally call my HOME TOWN Liberal.
~Deanna~
