In early February, ten church friends and I enjoyed a matinee production of Love Letters at the Alhambra Dinner Theatre in Jacksonville.
Before the show, my new friends (not to be confused with my special Southern Lady friends) and I feasted on one of the two: prime rib or buttered shrimp. No one at our table chose the vegetarian offering: stuffed sweet potato with asiago cheese. For dessert, the choices were carrot cake or warm pear cobbler. I opted for the prime rib and cobbler with a broccoli cheddar soup appetizer.
Show du Jour
Show Synopsis
A childhood friendship that begins with birthday thank-you notes and summer camp postcards blossom into the love story of Andy and Melissa. For the next 50 years, they continue to exchange letters and pour their hearts out to one another through personal triumphs and despair, wars and marriages, children and careers. This story, nominated for a Pulitzer prize, is a tender examination of the shared nostalgia and deep relationship of a life-long friendship.
Interestingly, the actors in the dialogue behind desks on stage are real-life husband and wife.
A few weeks ago, Cliff and I scoured the house for our own love letters, some of which got damaged in a garage flood long ago.
In the process of looking, we found a photo of a few of our old letters . . .

Guess whose letter is stamped with Postage Due!
Where had we put these letters since the move three years ago, we wondered . . .
Then, Mister Cliff found them in his van! Why were they there? How did they land in this odd place?
* * *
Do understand, we haven’t read these letters for decades. Once on my blog, I did write about our love letters in a post about my husband writing a love letter to my Grandma Longenecker.
Soon we’ll put some of our love letters in the car and read them again, out loud, when we get to our destination, a brief getaway out-of-town.
Will the contents be
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steamy?
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torrid?
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boring?
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enlightening?
I’ll let you know the results next week when I post about an 80-year-old novelist from Valdosta, Georgia, who has just published a steamy saga, which one reader has declared will “send her to hell”!
Good morning, Marian! How wonderful to have those love letters! (And what a fun idea to take them along to read on your getaway.)
I don’t have any old letters. I wish I had kept the letters my grandfather wrote to me when I was in college.
I think we saw the play many years ago, also with a real-life husband and wife in the roles.
Merril, good morning and Happy Valentine’s Day – soon. I enjoy your poetry every day (even if I don’t always comment), but I also pay close attention to movies you and Doug watch. Sometimes I add them to our watchlist on Netflix or Amazon Prime. How interesting that you probably watched this dialogue, bittersweet, for sure!
You do live an exciting life filled with lots of fun. I’d be jealous but you share it here so I get to tag along. I’m intrigued by the existence of love letters that come from a different era. Times change, but the need to express your love does not. Looking forward to reading more on this topic.
You have a sharp eye for seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary and your ardent readers gobble it up. Most bloggers would be thrilled to have the number of comments you have. So, no need to envy, dear Ally.
Thanks for checking in so early today as I think you live in the Central Time Zone. 😀
You flatter me, Marian. I can’t get over how many people check in with me on the blog. It amazes me and I am grateful.
As for where I am: I’m about as far west in the EST zone as a person can be, meaning I need to know the time in two different time zones when I do things around here. Because life isn’t confusing enough, eh?
😀
Most of the cards I’ve received from Derek are stored in a box. We’re big note writers, too. I’ve saved old letters from my grandmother and a few from my father. For me, it’s hard to part with words written by a loved one.
When you get old and gray (ha!) you can take a break from your wildly successful romance novels and write about your own LOVE letters. You’d have readers lined up to read those – from Derek, your grandmother and your father. I can see at least two separate books! 🙂
LOL! You’re funny! 🙂
I have most of the cards/letters my hubby has given me during our marriage. They’re poignant and illustrate the growth in our relationship and how we’ve handled some pretty trying times during our 37 years together.
You are the keeper of history in your family, Sara, a noble calling indeed. In the brief time I’ve been acquainted with you and your writing, I can tell you cherish memories. I remember one story about your dad giving up a habit and surprising you, perhaps at Christmastime. Thanks for checking in today with a comment.
And congratulations on 37 years with your hubby. I know from FB that he sometimes surprises you with flowers. We writers need all the encouragement we can get – right?
Alas and alack, my husband is not a writer. I maybe have one from him. I have many beautiful Valentine’s Day cards though with many sweet sweet messages that he managed to inscribe. And he has bought me many bouquets. 🙂
Your husband creates beautiful things with his hands, and you have lovely objects in your home to prove it. Not every wife is so fortunate. I believe Stuart thinks you are the writer in the house and rightly so! Flowers are a thoughtful gesture too. You are blessed, Melodie! 🙂
How lovely that you have those letters. When I was a kid, I discovered my parents’ love letters in a box in our basement. I thought they were the mushiest things! 😀 😁 But what a gift to discover them (as I later decided). I keep many of the letters I’ve received over the years, particularly from readers who took the time to write.
Ah, you’ve kept your parents’ love letters. Their contents might turn into a blog post – eh?
It’s especially wonderful that some readers in your fan club have sent actual letters in the mail. That’s a rare thing these days. Thanks for sharing, L. Marie!
How great that you found the letters. We don´t have any love letters but I did discover some letters my mom wrote to my dad when they were “courting”. I have given them to my daughter for safe keeping. I´m sure you will enjoy rereading yours on your car trip.
You are smart in handing these special love letters off to your daughter. She will enjoy savoring them when she has time. Who knows what might happen to them in the future: perhaps a primary source for another piece of writing?
Thanks for sharing here, Darlene!
My mom was the best letter and note writer. I have stacks of her sweet notes 😍
Welcome to my blog, Linda! You are fortunate to have a literary mother, and now you can save (and perhaps pass on) these reminders of family love. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
It’s sweet that you found the letters! And what a wonderful idea, to re-read them together.
I have a tin box with all of K’s letters and cards to me. I also have a box full of the letters I wrote to my grandmother in 1978-79, when I lived in Europe. I did not know she had saved them all, and I inherited them when she died.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you two!
You know the value of “lyrical” love letters, Tracy. How wonderful that you have a European journal, thanks to your grandmother saving letters. Something similar happened to me when we cleared out Ruthie’s attic where we found notes in greeting cards – and letters from my sisters and me. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
After our dad passed, we discovered a few letters he had written to our mother before they married, while he was stationed away from her in WWII. He was always wildly in love with her, and his fondness for writing was evident. Thank you for jarring my memory this morning!
Bloggers never know how/where their writings will land in the hearts and minds of readers. How lovely that your parents’ love affair has been certified with letters. And what an example they have been in both word and deed. I appreciate your sharing this, Ginger!
I’m so glad you found your letters! I bet you’ll have a good old laugh when you read them!
We have several boxes with all kinds of mementos, from home-made birthday cards to silly notes and drawings we made for each other, but also includes our son’s.
I’m not surprised that you have a stash of letters, Fatima. Yes, we will probably be surprised at some of our thoughts. And I’m sure there’ll be plenty of laughs!
Marian, ours was a letter writing romance of two years, and yes, these letters are somewhere…I must go and look for them, not sure I’ll have the courage to read them! I also kept a notebook in which I wrote some love poems, etc. My grandma was a snooper, and one day I found a penciled note written on the cover of what I thought was my very private notebook, saying (in German): “You have someone, ha, ha!” I wasn’t even angry with my grandma, as she actually had the guts to let me know she snooped. I never confronted her!
Elfrieda, I can always count on your for an interesting anecdote. Your grandma was definitely a gutsy woman. I’m guessing her note had a double meaning: I’m watching you + I care about you too. The “ha ha” tells me she has a sense of humor too. Ha ha!
My husband and I don’t have any love letters. We have always been in the same town. It’s interesting to think about what I would have said back then. What a treasure you have.
Arlene, obviously you and your then-boyfriend didn’t need love letters. However, Cliff and I lived hundreds of miles apart: Over the 1 1/2 years before our marriage, we figure were were together “face to “face” for little more than a month. Letters had to suffice. Air travel was too expensive for a beginning teacher and a recently graduated student. Thanks for checking in today! 🙂
A wonderful find— What a love gift! <3 Wishing you both a Happy Valentine's Day and hours of love rekindled! <3
Bette, thank you for your good wishes and for your sweet smile, brightening up my day. Happy Valentine’s Day to you too!
By the time Bob and I met, letter writing was becoming a thing of the past. I can’t recall a single letter exchanged during our almost 39 years together. However, most of the birthday cards, Valentines, and other Hallmark moments are saved somewhere but where is another question. One of the greatest treasures when cleaning out my parents’ home was finding the cards from my dad to my mom, which always included a handwritten note in beautiful prose. I mostly cried as I read most of them.
What a letter-writing legacy you have inherited from your Dad. You have these artifacts to treasure + also the inheritance of writerly talents too.
I appreciate your joining the conversation today – you at suppertime and me, almost ready for bed. Thanks for all of this, Sherrey!
One more thing: Congratulations to you and Bob for almost 39 years.
The only letters I have are from my mother over the years and friends…my hubby not a writer at all…Bless him..a great idea to put them in the car and read them together…:) xx
Letters from your mother will become increasingly priceless in years to come, I predict. Thanks for stopping in today with a comment, always appreciated, Carol.
Always a pleasure, Marian 🙂 xx
😉
Stuart and I wrote letters for more than two years when I was still in college and he was volunteering at the Mennonite Board of Missions and then going to grad school. The letters have found their final resting place in the archives in the historical library at EMU. It feels good to know that a record exists of those tumultuous years in the late 60s in the lives of two young people just setting out into that world. But my teenage daughter’s pronouncement, when she started reading them, may be the conclusion of others: “they’re boring!” To us they were not.
Cliff has beautiful penmanship. Of course.
What a lovely thing to do with letters. These letters may become primary sources in someone’s thesis or dissertation one day, who knows.
My sister Jean and I have donated some artifacts, including letters (not sure whose) to the Center for Pietist Studies in E-town. Even one of my dad’s Minneapolis Moline hats is preserved there.
Shirley, I’m certain I would not think these letters are boring: two people growing more in love, sharing different worlds.
I love love letters! I set a goal of reading my parents’ love letters before my own marriage, but I still haven’t finished. The letters fill a box and span the years they were fourteen and sixteen until their marriage at nineteen and twenty-one. I still have a year’s worth of reading to go!
Ivan and I have started our own box…but a lot of our pre-marriage communication happened on WhatsApp. We want to print them out and put them in a binder or something.
Enjoy your reading and your special getaway.
One of the best predictors of marital success is the relationship of one’s parents, and you have it in spades. Many of your earlier blogs posts have recorded your parents anniversaries – and struggle too.
Now the legacy continues with a man who appreciates your virtues and your literary talents. I just finished reading your “fleshy” verse. I could identify your unique writing style anywhere, Luci! Thanks for checking in here.
I cherish love letters written by my dad to my mom in the months leading up to their marriage. They give me insight into my dad’s tender heart and the dreams of a young couple preparing for the adventure of their lifetime.
Linda, I just finished reading your manuscript, and what a story you have, including the precious gifts of your ancestry.
Your parents have served you with a precious blueprint for successful marriage, and you have “literal” proof. Thanks for sharing!
I love that you have kept those love letters! When our young people are old, they’ll have to look back at e-mails!
Regardless of the technology, the correspondence will continue. That’s a great thought, Fiona. Thanks!
I love how you link all these events together in one blog post, Marian. I love your topics as well. And I surely would love to find out what was in those love letters between you and Cliff. Let alone loving to hear about the steamy book you’ll touch upon. I guess it’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow. Oh, now I get the theme! 🙂
I’ve probably mentioned it before, but I recycled most all my letters when I visited my childhood home for the last time in the summer of 2018. I tried to be unsentimental about it, but I already regret it. My plan was to reread them all first, but no time for that!
I feel that the new generations are missing out by never experiencing the joy of handwriting a love letter, or opening the envelope (with anticipation) and then reading a personal note.
Liesbet, you got the LOVE theme, I’m convinced. 😀
I’m sorry about your recycled letters. But you are saving special correspondence digitally nowadays. In fact, your blog is evidence of that.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you and Mark . . . Maya too!
Hmmmm, I think I better go find ours!
Joan, you and Bill have had a long, long love affair like ours though not without challenges. You and I both had “rough-ish” childhoods but ended up with men that complement us perfectly. Happy Valentine’s weekend to you both. 🙂
Ohhhh ! I say can’t wait to hear what you make of them . How lovely to have kept them . I ‘m afraid we don’t have any love letters . We kept the beautiful padded cards for birthdays etc . for many years but eventually we threw them away …sad really .
I do have a five year diary ( but that’s different I suppose) from 12 years to 16 now that should be published 😂
Cherryx
You have a lot of good stuff, Cherry! I remember those lovely PADDED cards. They looked sort of like a pincushion but prettier.
I would love to see your teenage diary. I am quite sure that your life in those years was more exciting (and wild, maybe) compared to mine – haha! Good to talk to you again here today. ((( )))
Marian — The sleuth in me wants to know HOW and WHY the love letters were in Cliff’s van!
Ah, you sneaked in on the sly after your productive and peaceful hideaway at Cardiff by the Sea.
Says Cliff: “I had planned to transcribe them into text to make them easier to read, but that never happened. It was good to read the originals anyway.”
Thanks for being an inquiring mind in this space, and for taking time to comment here as you are catching up!
I somehow missed this blog, Marian. I’m behind everywhere, but I’m glad I read this today. What will the contents be? You know about my stash of love letters still only partly read. Life has been so challenging this year that I’ve avoided submerging myself in grief, but I may be making a mistake. I’m in coronavirus solitude (grateful for my dogs and that my son will buy me any necessary supplies if this goes on for long), so maybe I’ll find the strength to take a little journey into grief and love. I cherish every letter and note, even if I haven’t read some since the 1970s. They’re emotionally loaded!!
Love Letters are always emotionally loaded, aren’t they, Elaine?
You have a house and farm to take care of. Even with help from your son, it’s A LOT! Please don’t burden yourself with the need to read every post. If you skip one or two here and there, it’s perfectly okay. Believe me! Virtual hugs: ((( )))