Tag: True Love | Page 4 | Nancy Lou Henderson

Kobe Beef, Pizza Party & Carolers

Posted by Nancy Lou Henderson in Love Letters | 6 comments

It was now October of 1969, and we did not have any more typhoons, habus, or flying doors. The “Stealy Boys” would always be a threat, but Frank and I had learned to live with that. On October 4, 1969, Frank turned twenty years old, and then on October 6, 1969, I also turned twenty years old. The single GIs that were our close friends invited us to go out to dinner with them. They took us to a fancy restaurant in Naha, Okinawa. When we got to the restaurant, and once inside, we were seated on three sides of a large U-shaped bar that had bar stools around it. There was a large...

Mayo Jar, Christmas & Moving

Posted by Nancy Lou Henderson in Love Letters | 4 comments

October of 1969, was passing by quickly for Frank and me in Okinawa. We had met lots of couples who lived around us in off-base housing and had become friends with an Okinawan family that lived across the street from our home. Sometimes while Frank was at work, I would see the Mamasan cleaning her home after her children and the Papasan had left for work. She would drag all of their furniture out into the yard, then sweep and washout the whole house. All of the mats that they slept on were shaken and then hung out on the fence to air. The Mamasan did not speak very much English, and all...

Our Hearts Are Broken

Posted by Nancy Lou Henderson in Love Letters | 6 comments

After nearly two years of living together in Okinawa, late November 1970, Frank and I returned to Van Vleck, Texas. We tried not to think about the short time we had left together, but it was always in the back of our minds. In less than Forty-five days, Frank would fly back to Okinawa for two weeks then transfer to Vietnam. Before leaving Okinawa, Frank and I had sat down and made plans for what we wanted to do when we got home. We wanted to have a place of our own where we could spend time alone together before he left for Vietnam. It was also crucial for us to have memories of living in...

Waiting on an Address

Posted by Nancy Lou Henderson in Vietnam Letters | 6 comments

Frank deployed from Okinawa to Vietnam on January 15, 1971. I would not receive the last letter he wrote from Okinawa until after he had been deployed for five days. One of the letters I had written to him dated January 11, 1971, was returned to me. Because I wrote him a letter every day, I know somewhere out there in “lost letter land” there are still other letters that he never received and which were never returned to me The problem we faced was that mail took five days or more to arrive in Okinawa from the states. The following letter is the first letter I received from...

Please, Please Mr. Postman

Posted by Nancy Lou Henderson in Vietnam Letters | 4 comments

We were both writing to each other, but I was the only one receiving letters. Once receiving an address, I mailed a large stack of letters to Frank that had been waiting on my nightstand to be sent. It would take days for Frank to get them. Receiving letters from him while he poured out his love for me made my heart ache because I knew how depressed he was and that he had not gotten my letters of love to him. It is a strange feeling to know your letters would comfort the one person who owns your heart and soul, but you are not able to get them to him fast enough. I prayed that soon a...