ISBN: 978-1-937592-08-0
Page Count: 182
On December 15, 1944, Valentina and Merle Martin celebrated their third wedding anniversary with a hug, a kiss, and a goodbye—possibly forever.
From that day forward, Merle Martin vowed to write his wife a letter every day as long as he was able when stationed in Hawaii and later on Okinawa during his service in World War II. Despite the flooding, typhoons, air raids, and operation of a field hospital less than a mile behind the front lines, Merle kept his promise. In his absence, Val would eventually collect well over three hundred of his letters expressing his fear, sorrow, everlasting love, and unfaltering hope for a better future. In what seemed like a lifetime of separation, Val and Merle remained together through their words and joint hope that he would one day return home safely.
After reading through Merle’s letters for the last time, Val Martin has combined Merle’s letters with her own personal narrative to paint a picture of the difficulties they faced during what would be their most challenging year as individuals and as a married couple.
Dear Valentina bears witness to their experience of grief and loss as well as faithfulness and love in a time of war.
About the Book
Imagine a time…when it took weeks—even months—to hear from someone you loved or cared about.
Letters were written, often with great care, and were sent and received with eager expectation or perhaps apprehension, depending on what was in the letter. In few situations are those communications from loved ones, family, and friends more important than when they are exchanged with someone serving in the military. With a war on and them in it, those letters were treasured far more because each one might be their last. And the letters they received could form their final thoughts of home, love, and you.
A tremendous responsibility to rest on something as simple as letters.
Between the letters lies the gap of what was and what is. A void often filled with a palpable stress that stoked the thoughts rattling around inside one’s head as they ran up and down the scale from wondering to dread. The men and women at the front could blank that out in their world where men and women were wounded and dying every day. But in the lulls, when the clamor of war quieted, the thoughts returned. Those in the “rear” back home with fewer distractions to shift their attention often dwelled in that odd time and space—rarely a comfortable one—between letters.
This book takes you back in time with two people who lived in that between space during one of the most tumultuous and deadly periods in history. You’ll follow their thoughts, their dreams, and their concerns—and through the hundreds of letters shared—their love for each other. We find that those so valuable human traits of faith, faithfulness, respect, and love can bind two hearts and two souls together.
To witness a love that spans over six decades is something very special. Within the pages of Dear Valentina you have a front-row seat.
