August 15, 2019
Seventy-six years ago, on August 13, 1943, my parents were married. Ina and Jimmie had been high school sweethearts but, with the war, he had joined the Navy. He turned 20 that April; she would not be 20 until October.
The US had been fully engaged in WWII for 21 months, since the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. The Invasion of Normandy began the month before and the Allies were feeling confident and determined to rout out the Germans from France. Gen. George Patton was taking credit for their bold move, and Franklin D. Roosevelt was in his 10thyear as President.
Jimmie came home on a week’s leave. Ina and he were married on Friday, they spent their wedding night in his parents’ home, and by Sunday, he was gone again.
They both passed away in 2016, within six months of each other, after 72 years of marriage. They were savers and left a treasure trove of letters, certificates, documents, and newspaper clippings, a time capsule from WWII. From these I have gleaned a wonderful glimpse of the people they were before they became parents, when they were young and in love, as they grappled with their world on fire, and how precious life was.
On their first wedding anniversary Jimmie wrote this letter to Ina from the USS New York. It was a Sunday.
~~~~
August 13, 1944
Written while I was on watch, as the ship was going through Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and Haiti.
My Darling Wife,
Just one year ago tonight we were married. I’ll remember it as long as I live. Those same little chills are running up and down my back now just as they did then. It may seem funny but sometimes funny things happen in this crazy world.
In several ways I am the luckiest guy in the world.
First, I am an American. I was born an American. No one can take that away from me.
Second, I am Christian. No one can take that privilege away from me.
Third, my Father and Mother. No finer people ever lived. No one can take them away from me, as they are mine forever.
Fourth, my wife, Ina. The nicest and finest girl I have ever met or ever could meet. You are mine and always have been mine. No one can take you away from me. I believe in you as I do the Bible. Nothing but truth, faith, and honesty. Truly, I love you with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind. From day to day you are all I live for. I’ll never forget how close I came to losing you. Never again will I be unkind, untrue, or disloyal.
(Two things held the meaning of this statement. Mom had a brief engagement to another young man but her mother hit the roof so she returned his ring. Also, in another letter, Dad revealed his indiscretion…he had asked another girl, a mutual friend of theirs from school, to write to him and send him her picture. Gasp…oh my.)
I don’t know how to end this for I guess I could write on and on, but Darling may there be for you and I a million more “13’s” in this world and the world to come.
“Yours”
Jimmie
Belonging 