Love From the heart
My name is John I was a soldier in 1934, I will never forget my first love. During the war most of us were lost in unforgettable ways. We knew we were at war and we knew we had to kill, but we never knew why. When I was in camp Ritchie where I was stationed for 2 years. This was the first time she walked into my life. Her name was Anita. She was the most beautiful woman in the world to me. She had hair of gold as if the sun shined on her all day. Her lips were light pink as if God had perfected her lips. She had an innocent smile and yes she was very shy. I met her there. She was a nurse for our platoon. I walked up to her and asked her name (I remembered) as she would smile and tell me her name was Anita.
Anita was married and her husband was also in the service but in a different state. She joined as a nurse in hopes to one day be close to her husband. She would spend hours telling me how wonderful he was. I was not married; I had never been in Love with a woman. I was always too scared to know someone. The feeling behind the expression of love has always been hurt and pain. I was always scared of getting close to anyone for that reason. I would always keep an eye on her for the other soldiers wanted to bed her. I would always tell them she was my girlfriend so they would leave her alone.
I asked her many things about this man who won her heart. She would at times sit in the back of the clinic and think of her husband, as she would cry missing him. She told me he was a gentleman as well as a good husband. He would always spend time with her and send her flowers every week for as long as they had been married. Till the war started and he had to do his duty for his country. She showed me many letters he wrote her, asking her to please go back home and wait for him. She was determined to be with him, so she joined the service. He tried hard to be with her but the commander in his platoon did not want a husband and wife in the same camp. She decided after to continue on, when she saw all those men wounded and suffering. Since then she has been stationed here with us. As time went on she would receive letters from him and spend time telling me what he was doing and how much he missed her. More and more each day I would look forward to seeing her. It was sad to me because I had fallen in love with a woman who was loyal and faithful to her husband.
When she wrote him she would tell him of me. She explained that I was protecting her and making sure she was ok while he was not here. He trusted his wife and would never think that she would see other men. He would reply saying to thank me for that. He would tell her that when this war was over he would invite me over and thank me himself in person. I would tell her to let him know things are ok here and not to worry.
Anita and me would
meet everyday by the clinic at about Eight O clock every night. One night I
waited for her and she never showed. I figured she would be tired and would
decide to rest instead. I waited the second night and did not see her again. I
worried about her now that 2 days had gone by. The next morning I asked where
she was. She had left for she was transferred to another unit. She was asked
because it would put her in the same state as her husband. I was saddened
because we never even said goodbye. I was hurt and sad by this.
After 1 year had gone by I received a letter from her. She wanted to let
me know she was sorry she had to transfer and waited this long to send me a
letter. She explained to me that when she got to her new unit, Two days later
she received a letter from the Army telling her that her husband was killed in
the battlefield. She explained that it destroyed her so deeply that it took all
that time to come to reality. She was very heartbroken and did not want to speak
to anyone for a long time. She explained that she was going home in 2 weeks and
would like to see me before she left. I asked my commander for a pass to go and
meet with her. He gave me only three days to go and come back. I was given
little time for I would have to go and return that same night. I got on the
train and arrived there a day and an half later. She met me at the train station
(I had only 2 hours to spend with her for I had to leave on the next train to
get back on time).
When
she saw me she rushed me and hugged me as her smile glowed with tears in her
eyes. I told her how sad I was and sorry for the bad news and how deeply sorry I
was. She wanted to show me a letter her husband wrote her before the letters
stopped coming from him. I sat there and started to read this letter.
Love
Henry”
This was so important to her that she wanted me to read it myself. As she
hugged me and told me how destroyed she was, I could not help but to hold her
tight in my arms. As I sat there in her arms the horn of the train arriving was
getting louder and louder as it approached. It was time for me to leave. She
asked me if I would keep writing her and let her know how things were. The war
has ended and the years have gone by. I tried to keep in touch with her but we
somehow lost each other during all this time. She was a woman who I fell in love
with, a woman who I would have traded my dreams for. Comes to show that in life
we love in so many different ways and show it. But now I sit here an old man
(alone in this world) thinking about a woman I loved from the heart.
