Sunday 3 October 2010

Love letter of dreams


It's now October and very soon will be my dad's birthday. I've written about him before, but last week Mum and I re-read some of his letters to her during his five years of war service. He knew a little French and often wrote romantic replies to Mum's fluent French notes. Dad wrote every chance he had though the fierce campaigns. One of the most amazing things about my parents' attitude to the enemy, even during the war, was their sympathy for and understanding of the German people. After the war we travelled extensively throughout the continent, but Germany was Dad's first love. He expresses it poignantly here with a description to Mum of his dreams.
"With the car - what type shall it be, Cheri? We shall travel! With God's blessing we shall once again indulge in simple pleasures of free people, unfettered by restrictions and partings and without mortal fear of the future. We shall have our own little maison with garden, somewhere in reach of country and town. We shall lay this car up for a couple of weeks in the summer for our holiday, starting with Switzerland. I regret we'll have to give Germany a chance to clear up before we visit, as we will at home. But I think it will be nice to spend just one more holiday touring the Black Forest, Munich and Berlin. Travel will be quite cheap when this is over. And though at the moment we all think rather rudely about certain countries, it will be altogether different after. It's very lovely to think about, Cheri. Bonne nuit, ma chere, je tu aime beaucoup. Sleep tight and chin up. Votre homme toujour, Bill."

1 comment:

  1. What a lovely story. I'm sure his dreams of travel in his car kept him going through those dark years of war.

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