By Nancy Patrick

Today’s young people may not know the tradition of writing love letters, but those more mature among us certainly remember the impact and importance of love letters between sweethearts.

My husband and I began dating in November of 1967 during my senior year in high school and his sophomore year at Hardin-Simmons University. We met at my church where he and his roommate attended because our pastor was a friend of theirs.

Our first date happened near the beginning of my senior year, and after that first date, we never went out with anyone else. Was it love at first sight or plain old hormonal impulses? I don’t know, but it has lasted for fifty-seven years now.

 I won’t say the relationship hasn’t changed over the years because that would be a lie. I will say, however, that the changes have mellowed and matured us from two people to a unit.

During the first summer of our courtship, Mike needed a summer job so he went to his parents’ home in Illinois to find work, leaving me completely distraught—truly love sick. I cried, had stomach aches, and couldn’t eat. I don’t know about his symptoms, but we both wrote each other letters every day.

I awaited the mail man’s delivery with anticipation each day. I read and reread his letters. Those letters revealed young, love-struck, and forlorn young people. Our letters were expressive, emotional, passionate and sensitive. At the end of his absence (he came back home after about six weeks), we put all our love letters together and tied them with a ribbon. 

That packet followed us around for many years as we moved after graduations and job changes. The last time I saw it was in the early seventies in Fort Worth, Texas. I remember storing the letters on a shelf in our bedroom, but when we moved from there to Princeton, Illinois, in 1974, I failed to find them during our unpacking. We both searched diligently but never found that packet of letters.

I really worried about that loss for a long time but finally had to simply chalk it up to the natural loss of things over a lifetime. As young marrieds, we joked about the possibility of future blackmail from the finder of those letters. I guess no one ever found them or at least didn’t find them as titillating as I feared.

Looking through old high school yearbooks the other day, I ran across a full-page letter Mike had written in my senior book. His sweet and vulnerable expression of his love for me melted my heart as I reflected on our innocence and youthful euphoria.

I took the book to Mike’s study to show him what I had discovered and asked him why he doesn’t write me love letters like that anymore. He just smiled and read his long-ago written message.

Ironically, our fifty-seventh wedding anniversary soon followed on November 23, and to my surprise, I found his card to me propped near my coffee pot that morning. In addition to the card, he had placed a full-page letter to me. In that letter, he enumerated the many blessings he counted over our fifty-seven years together. 

Among those blessings, he listed the thousands of meals I have cooked, the management of the household, the birth and life of our wonderful son, the thousands of teenagers whose lives I touched during my teaching career, and the consistent and faithful love I have shown him since 1967. 

You can imagine the tears in my eyes and the gratitude in my heart as I read those words. As I hugged him and thanked him, he whispered, “I wrote that before you found the letter in the yearbook.” 

Words have always been an important part of my life. Several years ago, I came across a book entitled The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. One of those languages, words of affirmation, revealed the importance of my love language. 

Words can deliver hope, love, encouragement or despair, hatred, and condemnation.

Though not everyone needs an abundance of reassurance, everyone benefits from kind words. Whether a love letter or a word affirmation, we should look for opportunities to uplift others rather than malign them.  

Nancy Patrick is a retired teacher who lives in Abilene and enjoys writing