Have you saved any love letters?

Grampa Don

Grampa Don

Yep, that's me
Location
Orange county, Calif.
I saved every letter my wife wrote me in the Navy when I was away, and she saved the ones I wrote her. I just finished going through them and organizing them a bit. It was sort of like reliving those days sixty years ago; sweet, but sad too. There was much that I had forgotten completely.

They are now bundled and stored in a little chest my grandfather made for my Mom when she was 18. I don't know what will happen to them, but I couldn't bear to throw them out.
 

Grampa Don said:
I saved every letter my wife wrote me in the Navy when I was away, and she saved the ones I wrote her. I just finished going through them and organizing them a bit. It was sort of like reliving those days sixty years ago; sweet, but sad too. There was much that I had forgotten completely.

They are now bundled and stored in a little chest my grandfather made for my Mom when she was 18. I don't know what will happen to them, but I couldn't bear to throw them out.
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yes exactly that... all the letters that my ex husband sent me when he was away at sea with the Royal Navy... ...
 
My wife was my first and only love, and since we met each other at work and saw each other every day, there were no letters. But, over the years, she sporadically kept diaries, notes, etc., and after she passed on, I found some of those in her closet. She had expressed her feelings toward me several times; some good, some not so good. I'll never know if she would be okay with me reading those papers. I saved them in the event I ever decide to read them again someday, but that is not likely.
 
Wow, thatā€™s incredibly sweet. Meanwhile, I once saved a Post-it note from an ex that said ā€œBuy milkā€ because she dotted her i with a heart and I thought it meant something. it didnā€™t <<< Spoiler

Glad your letters aged like fine wine. Mine aged like old takeout containers in the fridge ... mysterious, slightly tragic, and best left unopened.
 
katlupe said:
I have a bunch that I printed out from emails from my present relationship. I am getting ready to get rid of them now. They were only meant for my eyes and I do not want anyone seeing them.
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I suspect love letters are a rare thing now. Emails are more convenient but also more fleeting. I feel like there's something special about a message written by hand.
 
Canā€™t save something I never gotšŸ¤ 

I do regret, however, not saving the letters from my then husbandā€™s brother when he was in Nam.

He was shot and we didnā€™t know. But there was a sudden and dramatic change in the tone of his letters, that even his brother a discharged Nam Vet, saw the change. He was an awrse when he came home and for all that I know, remains one. I always thought those letters might have been useful to help him, had I saved them.
 
Grampa Don said:
In olden times, they were a way of showing affection over long distances. Now, they would have to be short because they would probably be texted.
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I wrote so many letters to my ex husband when he was at sea .. that I knew his 8 digit personal service number off by heart... and 45 years later I can still reel it off.... and all the letters were sent to a BFPO address.. which is British Forces Post Office... because clearly when a ship is at sea somewhere in the world.. it can't be delivered to the ship itself by regular methods....

.. so the BFPO office would deliver sacks of mail to the ship about once a week sometimes longer sometimes 2 weeks.... so by the time I'd sent a letter to him.. and he'd received it.. and then sent one in return.. sometimes he sent 2... there could be as long as 3 or 4 weeks between correspondence.. not ideal when the wife is home alone with a baby.. as I was and were so many other Navy wives
 
Grampa Don said:
I suspect love letters are a rare thing now. Emails are more convenient but also more fleeting. I feel like there's something special about a message written by hand.
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We have kept all of our letters to each other, they are as special as the photographs.
Don's comment resonated with me, I still write, that's hand write, letters to friends and family, I also write to officialdom when I get their mail, again I hand write.
One of the UK's national newspapers is known as The Daily Express, a former quality newspaper that's gone down hill. They had a feature, that I caught sight of online, about the decline in handwritten letters:

Text & Emails 004.JPG
script 001.JPG
 

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