I knew Pop for nearly a half century. In that time there were a lot of things that I learned about him. Many things I picked up watching him, a number of them were things he taught me, and then there were the things that I never knew. No matter how much time you spend with someone you will never know everything about them, but I think that there comes a point where you think you know someone pretty well.
I found a box of letters that my mom wrote to Pop when they were dating. From these letters, a whole new side of Pop, that I never expected, was revealed. It was eye opening to see a version of Pop long before I knew him. And it was interesting to see a new perspective of Pop from someone else. That Pop kept all of mom’s letters was interesting to me, I expected that it would be the other way around.
As I was going through some stuff this week I found some cards and letters from Pop to mom. I don’t recall the two of them going out together very often. And I don’t ever remember Pop making a big deal of Valentine’s day. But I found two envelopes. One the size of a postage stamp and the other was about three inches long and maybe 3/4 of an inch tall. They were obviously hand made. One had a stamp with a postmark drawn on it and a tiny valentine inside. The other was a long letter for mom’s birthday. Neither of them were expensive, but both were thoughtful. Pop was in love with mom from the day that they met until the day he died.
There was a time I was sitting in a cafeteria and overheard a conversation between two young women. One said if she didn’t get a ring that was at least a carat she was going to say no. I remember thinking I hoped that poor guy gave her a smaller ring than that. Mom and Pop were never extravagant, but they were definitely in love. They didn’t need expensive gifts or expensive gestures, they had each other and the simple, thoughtful things were enough.
They were married for over five decades when mom passed. Pop was never the same without her. It was a great love story. If only everyone could be so lucky.