Tag: Marriage | Page 5 | Nancy Lou Henderson

Ups and Downs and Poetry

Posted by Nancy Lou Henderson in Vietnam Letters | 4 comments

Frank had decided to quit smoking on March 1, 1971, while he was in Vietnam. There is a movie called “Cold Turkey” from 1969. It is about a town whose citizens all decided to quit smoking and the emotions that they went through. If you haven’t watched it, you will want to do that. It is really funny. Thinking, if you are twenty-one years old, have been married for nearly three years, have been separated from your wife for two months who you are used to being intimate with, are suffering from loneliness with off and on depression, and you are in Vietnam during a war, it...

“Just a Touch of Magic”

Posted by Nancy Lou Henderson in Vietnam Letters | 14 comments

Frank and I had been separated before, ten weeks while he was in Basic Training, two weeks after we married, and three months before I arrived in Okinawa but this separation was different. The difference in this separation was fear. Fear of losing your soulmate, the person who owned your heart and soul. Frank was in a war zone where anything could happen at any moment. We were both aware of that possibility every moment of every day. Music was always a big part of our lives. We played music all of the time and knew the words to most of the songs on the radio. The music from the 60s and...

A Quote from Me

Posted by Nancy Lou Henderson in Vietnam Letters | 2 comments

Although they had taken days longer than expected, letters were beginning to arrive, Frank and I had both been very worried about each other but getting a letter helped calm our fears. Frank sounded so happy in his last few letters and that made me happy. It always made me feel better when I knew he was light-hearted and not so depressed. For some reason, I felt that he was safer from danger. Frank felt the same way about me. When I wrote a letter that was upbeat, he knew that I had a good day and was not depressed which meant I was probably eating right. Frank was so afraid that I...

Third Anniversary Blues

Posted by Nancy Lou Henderson in Vietnam Letters | 2 comments

Frank has written “Happiness is Love” many times in his letters. This saying came off of a big card I sent him while he was in Vietnam. The card had Snoopy dancing on the front of it with “Happiness is Love” above Snoopy’s head. Frank kept it taped to the wall next to the side of his bed. On that same wall, he kept taped pictures that his four-year-old little sister, Cindy, had colored for him. Another really special thing that Frank and Cindy did, was to send each other freckles through letters. Frank was pretty down in the dumps in his next letter to me. ...

Doll, Jewlery, Dear John

Posted by Nancy Lou Henderson in Vietnam Letters | 2 comments

Frank and I made it through our third Wedding Anniversary without being physically together but the distance between us could not separate our hearts and souls that day. On our third Wedding Anniversary, I was kept busy by the family around me to keep my mind off of the fact that Frank was not there. Frank had good friends around him that kept him busy too. In Frank’s next letter he tells me a little about what he did in Phu Bai, Vietnam on our third Wedding Anniversary. May 10, 1971 Dear Nancy, How’s my wife today? I hope fine and very much in love with me. I’m sorry I...