December 21, 2009

A sixty-nine year old love letter

My grandma promised to send me one of the letters and today it came. The pages are thin, the folds pronounced, it is typed out with penned in corrections of his English.

“How can I ever doubt your esteemed character when I have spent five days and six evenings in your company…I like to recollect all my memories. But you I shall always see in my mind that way as I first met you when I was introduced to you by the Senator whose name I cannot remember. If you could only know how beautiful you looked that night when you appeared at the dance and you so tall in the dress which fell to the toes and made you look so lady like. So there you see I remember you. Perhaps you think I am saying this as an excuse for my lateness in answering your letter but do believe me I would have the same to say if I had answered immediately.”

This part is handwritten in a green pen: “I am writing a long letter because I wish to write to you always. You are truly to me very dear. Every moment of that thought gives me great pleasure. Your remembrance has been a great reward for that trip. Speaking in English I shall save everything for you… yes just for you.”

The letter is dated December 26, 1940 and Yugoslavia was on the brink of being taken over by the Axis powers. “Can you forgive my tardiness? Believe me I was away where it was impossible to write as I was on duty as you know todays situation in the world…We are preparing to celebrate our great day the birth of Christ a moment when we Yugoslavs realize peace and a future in the wings of our home. We are at peace now when from all sides blood is being spilled of young and good sons of different lands.”

I tried googling his name but got absolutely no responses, not a single thing even appeared. I can’t help but conjure in my mind the possibilities of who this man is – endless elaborate concoctions, piecing together the bits I know, weaving through them varying negative or positive contemplations. Whatever his intentions, for whatever reason the letters stopped coming, whoever he was, he was a man who closes tender letters by saying “Always I am to you.”

Do I post this and share? Or is it too sacred perhaps? Did she really love him or is this letter really nothing? She was about to destroy the letters, worried that people would gossip about the romance, but my grandma had protested and kept one of the letters all these years. Thelma was an avid traveler, going to every continent, and she did make it to Yugoslavia at one point, it was actually her last international trip, two weeks in Dubrovnik in 1982. Had he faded from her memory years before that, or did glimpses of him and that voyage still appear on lonely nights?

BABIES!!

The credit for sharing this gem goes to Shark Gillins. Check it out!!

For Amy...

In honor of Amy's engagement I have a different kind of transpacific proposal...

Much has been written, composed, sand, performed, painted, etc about the ol' idea of "Love" - may I suggest now a time to share with Amy and the rest of us our favorites of all variety on the matter...

December 18, 2009

for amy!

so when composer schumann asked dear clara for her hand in marriage back in 1837, she wrote in response...

‘you require but a simple yes? such a small word – but such an important one. but should not a heart so full of unutterable love as mine utter this little word with all its might? i do so and my innermost soul whispers always to you.’

oh how beautiful! it popped into my mind when i heard the blessed news of amy + warren = eternity. congrats dearest amy! i'm so so happy for you two! a grand huzzah for the small word "yes" and all that it embodies as the starting-point of a full life together :)

December 15, 2009

a few lovelies for all you lovelies

last night was a beautifully calming show in williamsburg of keren ann and claire + the reasons.

(embedding is broken! but go to the links for loveliness! the video links on "ann" and "claire + the reasons" are wondrous)

and do you all know about habit? if not, please acquaint yourself now.

December 12, 2009

Tragic European Secret

*sorry i haven't posted anything in a long time, but here is something that changed my world today

For as long as I can remember my Great Aunt Thelma has been a huge factor in my life, both during the few shorts years I knew her and after her death. The main descriptions people give of her are driven and compassionate. She never married and spent her whole life striving to serve others as well as reach her utmost potential. You have likely heard me speak of her before.

Today I interviewed my Grandma, Thelma's only surviving sibling. I asked many questions, including this one I have always been afraid to ask,"did she have any romance in her life?"
"Why, yes!" my grandma said and her face lit up, waiting to tell me the dramatic story.

In 1939, at the age of 35, she left for her first trip to Europe for an international meeting of women. Her voyage to Europe was on the luxury ship the 'Queen Mary', and it was filled with movies stars, senators, and other elites of the world. On the boat she met a man from Yugoslavia who had been in Washington DC for some uncertain, but high-profile meetings. Thelma and the man fell in love, and he said he would find her once this ever present war ended. She received two letters from him, professing his love and asking about the possibility of marriage. After the 2 letters, she never heard from him again. (My grandma said she has one of the letters and will give to me).

In 1944, Thelma went back to Europe abroad the 'Queen Mary' again, but this time it was a troop ship and she was to spend the rest of the war working for the American Red Cross in Liverpool. She then spent 2 more years helping rebuild the continent. During that time she was invited to Buckingham Palace and met the King, Queen, and future Queen, drove a jeep alone all night to see the Nuremburg trials, and did much tiring work in Paris, Munich, and elsewhere.

- The 'Queen Mary' 1939.