Tag: Wife | 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...

Stork, Water & A Note

Posted by Nancy Lou Henderson in Love Letters | 10 comments

Moving across the road from Torii Station, then living next to our best friend’s home was a whole new beautiful experience. Our home and the neighbor’s house were actually at a hill bottom. Houses behind us were separated from us by a fence then had yards that gradually sloped uphill until they were about twenty feet higher. Our next-door friends had a little boy about six months old who we fell in love with him. We had lots of married friends, and they all had children or the wives of the couples who did not have children were pregnant. It seemed that the Stork was dropping...

A Roller Coaster of Emotions

Posted by Nancy Lou Henderson in Love Letters | 4 comments

Beginning of the Summer of 1970, we had settled into our daily lives in Okinawa. We were enjoying every moment together, but soon things would disrupt that peace, sending us on a roller coaster of emotions. Since Frank was on the day shift, I was surprised when he came home at lunchtime one day. Visibly upset as he entered the house, he asked me to sit down, which I immediately did. With tears in his eyes, Frank said, “Nancy, I need you to pack a bag because I need you to go home.” Being so in tune with Frank’s heart and soul, I knew that there was something wrong which he...

Last Letters From Okinawa

Posted by Nancy Lou Henderson in Love Letters | 2 comments

Frank was trying to deal with his loneliness in Okinawa while I was dealing with that same loneliness in Van Vleck. Handwritten letters were our way of communicating our feelings to each other. After Frank returned to the island for a short time before being sent to Vietnam, I could see in my mind where he was living and working, which gave me so much comfort. We had lived across the road from Torii Station and had been on the base many times, so I knew it very well. Since we had rented the little white house in Van Vleck once arriving home from Okinawa, Frank could envision me in our...

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...