If My Heart Had Wings: A World War II Love Story(14)

Casting a little doubt on his twenty-one-year-old wife’s culinary skills, he added:

She talks of preparing a Thanksgiving dinner but I think we’ll eat that at the Officer’s Club on the Post...



He then revealed something he would never have included in a letter to his mother:

I’m certainly glad we can start our married life away from St. Paul and the friends and relatives there. If and when we ever get back to St. Paul together to stay [his emphasis], we will have been together long enough to not need any all-too-well-meaning help.



Finally, toward the end of the letter, he explained the reason for his sudden decision to get married:

There were so many things in our favor all at once that I couldn’t see myself side-stepping this any longer, and now I’m sure that if and when my turn comes and we have to be separated for a time, it’ll be easier knowing and remembering our married life together than if we were just... engaged without these weeks together.





During the next ten weeks, Lyndon trained hard, hauling soldiers to military bases around the country, doing night flights and resupplying missions, towing gliders under simulated combat conditions, and performing evacuations by air. Many of the flights were long and exhausting, and some required an overnight stay. But most of the time, he was able to come home in time to have dinner and spend the night with his new wife, which had to be a thrill for both of them.

Best of all, she was with him at Christmas, a truly joyous one for both of them. In a letter written on December 28 to his parents, Lyndon described his elation:

Certainly had a nice Christmas here. The other fellow living with us didn’t get home here from a trip to Milwaukee till 9:00 Christmas Eve and we thought he’d never come. We opened our things one at a time then. Had lots of fun too with a couple trick gifts. But the lounging robe and slippers Nina gave me were no trick. I gave her a dresser set...



We had a couple chickens fried with real chicken gravy and mashed potatoes, etc. Quite a treat too. Can’t get a decent meal in town at any price... We’ve been burning scrap wood in the fireplace... Have a fire in there now and it surely looks nice. The women have fixed a nice winter scene on the mantel with a couple candles, and then with the tree lit it looks pretty nice in there...



This year without actually being able to give or receive much, I’ve still had even a little more, I think, of the real Christmas spirit with a wife and home her ...



Just time enough for a shave and to bed now. Usually get up about 6:30 these days. If I were a bachelor I wouldn’t have to get up till about 7:30. (But it’s worth it.)



Love, Lyndon





More than seventy years later, when I read this letter for the first time, some very familiar handwriting scrawled across the bottom caught my eye—it was Mom’s! There she was, weighing in with her own take on their newly-wedded bliss:

It must have seemed strange to you people not to be able to have your family with you this year. Our Christmas seemed a little different too, but it was so wonderful being able to be with Lyn. This was our first Christmas and we really enjoyed it.



Whoops, excuse me, I just sneezed. A man with shaving soap all over his face—I guess it’s my husband—just stuck his head in the door and told me to cover up. He watches me like a mother. Guess I’d better get ready for bed.





Nina

I couldn’t help wondering what her mother-in-law thought about that gleeful little message.

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M OM SAID THE ORDERS they had been expecting and dreading came shortly after New Year’s Day, 1943. On January 9, Lyndon was set to fly to West Palm Beach, Florida, along with the rest of his squadron, and there was no clue as to where they would be headed from there. But obviously, it was somewhere overseas.

She recalled those last days before he left as a time when they finalized their plans for getting through the war.

“The plan was for me to go home, finish my degree, do some practice teaching, and get my teaching credential. That way, at least one of us would have a job once he got back.”

As for where they would live, all they knew was it didn’t have to be Minnesota. California was nice, he told her. Maybe there.

One night he came home and announced that he’d made her the beneficiary on his life insurance policy, instead of his mother. You’d think this would happen automatically once a soldier married, but apparently not. Mom, who didn’t like thinking about insurance policies and the reasons she might need one, just said, “Oh, okay,” and changed the subject.

The night before he left, the two of them sat on the floor in the living room, surrounded by half-packed boxes, lamenting that their time together was coming to a close. But both felt sure their parting would only be temporary.

“We’ll have all the time in the world to be together someday,” he promised, as he held her close. She snuggled deeper into his arms and wished they could forget about the war and just disappear together.

Then, after a long and sleepless night, they got up early and said goodbye at the door. The squadron would be spending the day at the base, getting everything in order, then get an early start the following morning. After that, who knew what would happen?