Letter 5 England
Part 14 May 17, 1942
Dear Sweetheart:
And so a nice bright day & off to church we go & a very good sermon we heard, too. Slept part of the afternoon away & then some of us had an informal chat, off the record, & supper. Some of the boys had girl friends in & even if I didn’t know any of them it was at least nice to have something feminine around.
Darling! I’m just in the humor that I could take you in my arms & squeeze you till there wasn’t a drop of breath left in your lovely body. Just the touch if it darling, would send the blood racing madly through my veins, very contagious we you well understand, until into an inky blackness of peace we should pass & slumber till morn. This Darling is what I trust & fear as the days go swiftly by:
“Somewhere, a woman, thrusting fear away,
Faces the future bravely for your sake.
Toils on from dawn till dark; from day to day;
Fights back her tears, nor heeds the little aches;
She loves you, trusts you, breathes
In prayer your name;
Soil not her faith in you, by sin or shame.”
“Somewhere a woman, mother, sweetheart, wife-
Waits betwixt hopes & fears for your return;
Her kiss, her words, will cheer you in the strife,
When death itself confronts you, grim & stern;
But let her image all your reverence claim,
When base temptations scorch you
With their flame.
Somewhere a woman watches- filled with pride;
Shrined in her heart, you share a place with none,
She toils, she waits, she prays, till side by side
You stand together when the battles done.
O keep for her dear sake a stainless name.
Bring back to her a manhood free from shame.”
My sweet and darling wife, I only hope, that I shall be able to keep before me always, this beautiful poem, “For Honour & for Her”, that when I arrive back, to you a hero home, with no staint or stain upon our name, that we shall start exactly where we left off, that love shall be ours unconfirmed, a love of heaven & of joy. To you I ask remember this & it shall bring you happiness in the days to come. I am memorizing this now & shall keep it before me always.
Love to a beautiful wife & her daughter,
Arnold