That's the topic for this week's 52 Snapshots of Life blog hop, hosted by The Lazy Pit Bull.
This is going to be one of the easiest posts of all 52 weeks for me, since today is my parents' anniversary. Not their wedding anniversary, but the anniversary of the day they met. For their entire lives, my Dad always celebrated both today (the day they met) and tomorrow (Valentine's Day), by giving my Mom two store-bought cards and writing mushy, lovey-dovey things on the inside.
As everyone by now knows (and if you don't, where've you been!?), my folks signed their cards to each other "MTAITW", WWIIs version of "texting". The letters stood for "More Than Anything In The World". This became the title of my series of books containing my Dad's WWII love letters. He wrote to my Mom every single day while he was deployed in various locations throughout Europe and the U.S. If he missed a day, he'd send her an apology or even sometimes a telegram! The missed days were extremely rare, and my mother kept all of the letters -- approximately 1,000 of them.
But, back to the day they met. It was February 13, 1942. Like today, it was "Friday the 13th" but for the Mueller-Altenburg family, it would be nothin' but lucky. The event was one of these USO dances, stateside, where women (mostly nurses) and soldiers would jitterbug the night away in a church, barn, other available building, and even in railroad cars! My Dad was always a heavyset guy, and he thought this gorgeous nurse would never like him in a million years. But, she, too, was smitten. They saw each other again the next night, on Valentine's Day, and then kept dating. They were married in December of that same year, in a hurried and secret ceremony at city hall in Chicago -- like so many other couples of the day -- to make sure they "tied the knot" before Dad was deployed.
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| My parents' "formal" wedding photo. No, the bride didn't wear white! |
Valentine's Day was always very special for my parents, especially my Dad. He was very romantic!
So, in honor of my folks -- here's this week's blog post of LOVE!
What a great tribute to your parents and their love.
ReplyDeleteI love, love, love this! Great photo and what a great story! This is why I love the #52Snapshots challenge - there are so many amazing stories waiting to be told! :)
ReplyDeleteSuch a sweet photo and story <3
ReplyDeleteWhat a great story! My parents came out of the WWII era, as well, and I'm always fascinated by the differences back then, whether it be language or what they focused on. They were much simpler times, in a lot of ways. Great photo!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great story! Love it!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photo and story about your parents and their timeless love. Your mom's hat is awesome. I've always liked seeing vintage wedding pics and sometimes think it's kind of too bad that every bride feels she must wear a long white gown.
ReplyDeleteI can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this beautiful photo and reading about your parents. Thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful example of love.
ReplyDeleteThank you everybody, for your comments! Today would have been my mom's 95th birthday, too. It's been so crazy around here, I have not had time to read comments on the blog -- wow thanks for all the feedback!!
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