Love Letter
Today, February 5th, would have been my grandfather’s birthday. As I’ve absorbed the Band of Brothers miniseries times over the last year, I’ve been thinking a lot about my grandfather and his time in Europe near the end, and after, the war having served in the Army Corps of Engineers.
I lament, that while I nabbed – what I now know (from BoB) – as his “dress” uniform jacket when I was 14, I decided at some point that I no longer needed it.
I’m so visual, and while I know BoB was just a recreation, it has given me images of the soldiers in Europe during and after the war and with it, an image of my grandfather there.
I love imagining him in his dress uniform now that I have a vivid picture in my mind - how handsome he must have looked!
With this telegram my cousin unearthed recently, I imagine him there, standing at the Western Union counter, “disgusted homesick,” writing my grandmother, whom he adored until the day he died, this enchanting telegram:
STILL DELAYED MARSEILLE DISGUSTED HOMESICK NO SHIPS
HOME BY FEBRUARY BEST PROMISE LOVE YOU
LENDAL
