I'm in the middle of reading the most beautiful love story right now. It has all the elements of any good novel - suspense, tragedy, romance, humour, even war, but what makes this love story so fascinating is that I know the characters - my grandparents. My uncle, my Dad's brother, has put together the most unique story I've ever read. He took all the letters my grandfather ever wrote to my grandmother, particularly the ones he wrote while he was away at war (World War 2), and put them in chronological order while at the same time including the timeline of the war, focusing on the Regiment my grandfather was a part of at the time. He then turned it into a book for the family as a keepsake.
It is amazing to find out a side of my grandparents that makes me so endeared them. Unfortunately, my uncle could only include my grandfather's perspective as he wasn't able to keep all the letters my grandma wrote to him. She kept every single letter, every single gift, every single memorabilia he ever sent. However, because of how he responds to her letters, you can tell what she might have said, or asked.
The saddest thing is that my grandparents are no longer alive. Both of them passed away in their 90s only a few years ago. We never lived in the same province, so we never saw them more than once or twice a year my whole life. I thought I knew them, but clearly I didn't, not the way I wished. My uncle compiled this book in such a way that he didn't write out every single letter, apparently some of the details were quite intimate! But, he includes enough to show how much they loved each other. It just makes me wish I could talk to them now more than ever. I have so many questions for both of them that this book has raised for me. Questions I was never aware enough to ask when I was younger, about their lives, how they made it being separated for 4 years.... so many questions as now I realize how much I didn't know them and wish I knew them better! Good to keep in mind while my children still have their grandparents around.
Grandma was left back at the farm in Saskatchewan with her 2 young boys (one of them being the uncle who compiled the book years later, and the other was my Dad, who it turns out was quite the little rascal - I loved reading about him as a young boy!). She was a young mom living with her in-laws, which apparently was not an easy situation. All my grandpa does is write letters to encourage her to persevere, to hang in there. I cannot believe how well he knows his wife, her struggles, and yet he only speaks lovingly to her. At one point, he does call her out on her fretfulness, though, but even then, he writes it in such a gentle way, it could have only been received tenderly.
One of the things I have taken away from reading this amazing experience is how God used it in their lives. They feared God and refer to His goodness even in the midst of their pain. Being apart must have been the hardest thing that ever happened to them in their whole married life (and they ended up being married over 70 years!), but it taught them many things. Each of them grew so much as people. While they were away both of them went through health issues requiring hospitalization where they weren't able to be near one another right away. I imagine this must have been so hard! Yet I think that grew character in them, too.
For my grandma, she had been left as a young wife full of insecurities, but I think when she was left on her own to handle all these difficult circumstances, it grew her into the strong woman I met when I was a child. Same with my grandfather, he left as a young man thinking only his little world at the farm was all that existed. He traveled the world and saw all sorts of places, met all sorts of interesting people and learned so many amazing skills. It showed him that the world had been advancing, even in terms of farm machinery, that he hadn't known if he had never left the farm. It gave him a vision for what he could do when he got back. He was going to take that farm and turn it into something great! When he was in England, roaming around the countryside in the midst of his training, he noticed how beautiful it was. It gave him a vision for beautifying the farm and if you went to visit it now, you would see he did a great job, making a quaint little place in the middle of nowhere that was like a paradise for me when I was a kid. Even to go back now, it is so beautiful still. They didn't have running water or electricity, but my dad tells me they were the first ones to get electricity in their little farming community and I think that is a direct result of my grandpa going away, seeing how others did things. He also grew as a man of character, too. He wrote in one of his letters that he was coming back as a changed man, stronger. All I could think was how God can use everything for good, even war.
One of the other interesting aspects to this whole book was grandpa's focus on debt. He was sick and tired of it. It was as if I was reading a blog he'd written! He often had to borrow money from another soldier to get by until the next pay period as they just never gave him enough to live on it seemed. Plus, a lot of his money went back to my grandma which got eaten up right away as she had to feed her boys and get them warm clothes to wear. He couldn't stand the financial pressure and I think was quite determined that it wouldn't be that way the rest of his life. They were never particularly wealthy as long as I knew them, but I think they were very wise with their money and always generous and it seems to me that they ended up doing very well. If nothing else, it sure made me appreciate the fact that we've come by our debt convictions honestly. Even my grandparents knew the frustration of debt and how the pressure it created was so oppressive. Grandpa was determined to not let it rule his life once he came back. I appreciated reading that so much.
I could write much more, but the day has started over here and I've got hungry kids to feed, too! More later.......
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