For years I've had a treasure: virtually all of the letters my mom and dad wrote back and forth during WWII.

During the war, everybody on the home front wrote letters to not only their own family and friends, but any other service person who needed or wanted a pen pal. Mom's brother was in the Navy, and asked her to write to his buddy. So she did. This was in 1942.

For the next few months, they wrote back and forth maybe once a month. She was engaged to be married, and he was engaged to a girl back home. (They were from different parts of the country). By the end of 1944, the letters got more and more frequent.

In the spring of 1945, Dad stopped to see his buddy, Mom's brother, and meet Mom and her family on his way through by train to New England from California, on leave. He stayed about 24 hours.

As the next few months went by, the letters got a little mushier. He asked if he could stop to see her when he got another leave, November 30. He brought a diamond ring with him (the one I'm now wearing). She said yes, and they married on December 6. They barely knew each other...except by their letters. The marriage only lasted 53 years.

I'm now reading the letters for the first time. I don't think I'll read the ones they wrote after they were married. The ones a few weeks before the wedding are pretty smoochie, and I don't want to read anything that they likely wouldn't have wanted anyone to see. But it's been awesome to get to know them as they were back then, and watch as they started as pen pals, then became friends, then fell in love.