Jan. 24, 1943

Dearest Hal,

We have another lovely, warm, Sunday. We have certainly had some pretty warm weather since Christmas. Sam loves to be outdoors and I’m thankful for all the pretty days he can play outside.

Moffett and Marian rode down to see us on their horses this afternoon. They are getting married next weekend. We are very pleased because Moffett is marrying a girl we like so much.

Honey, I think maybe we should be glad we are not one of the “courting couples” now. We would really have troubles. We are only allowed to drive the cars when it is necessary and the ration boards don’t consider courting necessary when it involves driving cars. It really is hard on the girls. No wonder so many of them are joining W.A.C.’s or the W.A.V.E.’s. There are not very many boys left and they aren’t allowed to drive their cars for pleasure. It doesn’t matter of course. We are only too glad to do without anything that will help to win this war.

I had a mighty sweet letter from Aunt Rhetta last week. She wanted me to send her your address, said she wanted to write to you. She had expected to come to Staunton to spend a part of the winter. Aunt Anna has not been well and Aunt Rhetta thought she would not be able to come. I am sending Aunt Rhetta your address and you must be sure to answer her letter. I think she will be very pleased to hear from you.

I’m afraid we are not going to be able to hear from each other so often. Your letters having been coming through so promptly since Christmas. I can stand this if it means our planes are busy with more important work somewhere else.

We are going to be rationed on clothes, or so we hear. Each person will have $80 a year to spend. The way prices are going up I wonder just what we are going to wear. We have to pay $1.50 a piece for cotton stockings. They don’t last either. After nylons they certainly are a disappointment. I bought the material to make a couple of housedresses but instead of paying 19¢ or 25¢ a yard like we used to do. I had to pay 69¢ a yard. Still you hear people talking about ceiling prices. I guess they just didn’t get around to putting ceiling prices on things soon enough. You will realize [this] when the end of the month comes and I send you the statement I’ve been trying to keep.

We are listening to the radio as we always do Sunday nights. Jeanette McDonald is singing, “When You’re Away.” She dedicated it to all husbands and sweethearts overseas and especially to Captain Gene Raymond in the Army Air Corps. But I dedicate it to you as I do all the beautiful songs I hear.

So many things remind me of you. If I didn’t have you with me in memory I couldn’t bear these lonesome days and nights that separate us. Do you have any idea when you will be coming home? Does the war news really look better or is it just wishful thinking on my part. Sam and I often talk about your coming back. Sam was very much upset because he couldn’t go to New York with you. He is counting very heavily on meeting you when you come home. Darling, you will never know how we both count on your coming back to us.

We are both so proud of knowing that you are doing your part to help. I never see a man of military age who is not in uniform that doesn’t make me mad. Why shouldn’t they all be doing their part? I wish I could join something or get a job in a war plant. I know you want me here with Sam but sometimes it seems to me that waiting at home is the hardest job of all. I love you so much, my dearest, yet here I am perfectly helpless to do anything about it. I would give so much to be there to smooth away the rough places. No matter how hard you have to work on what worries and cares make you miserable, if you could only come home and let me make the cares and worries fade away. Just think what it would mean to come home and have a rousing game of “hide and seek” with Sambo. Then your papers, the radio, and last by my arms around you. What lovely moments, what wonderful things are took for granted never guessing how much they meant to us. Now I know that physically I am a complete person yet with such a longing and an emptiness that nothing can fill. I’m lost without that part of me that is you. Together we make a complete and happy couple but apart I am only half alive. Surely you can feel the love that overflows my heart and wings its way across the distance to you. So often something reminds me of you and I feel that you are so close to me I can almost touch you. In dreams I see you, too. One dream I have dreamed again and again. Always I am coming to you in the very thick of the fighting and then when I find you we are alone in the country. It is early spring and we are going into a lovely white house, but we never do go in because I always wake up just before that part.

Tell me more about the way you live. You can picture what we are doing because you know our surroundings so well but it is hard for us to know what you [are] doing so far away, and in a strange place, too.

I love you. My arms ache to hold you tight and yet I know I would not change things if I could. Brave men have always had to fight and the women who loved them have always had to wait for them to come back. Even while I miss you most I am proud that I belong to a man whose country means more to him than any selfish interest. I know you fight for me and for the way of life we hold so dear and I would not have it otherwise.

I pray that God will keep you safe and well.

All my love,

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