The Box

My mom recently brought a box over to my house.  My son was doing a project for my dad and needed information on his service in the military.  When I opened the box – what I found was so much more.  The box was filled with every letter that my dad had written my mom while he was away at war – The Vietnam War.  My dad had even made audio recordings of him talking to her and she kept those too.  What a treasure!  As I held those 50+ year old letters and read the words in some of them, my soul was moved.  I was holding the evidence of a real love story!  The endearing words on a page written by a fresh faced, scared 19 year old facing the possibility of death every day.  But in those circumstances, clung to his new wife and their love to get him through.  I told my mom that day to make sure that these letters and audio recordings are preserved, no matter what!  She was a little taken aback at my passionate reaction to the letters.  Here’s why:

That box.. full of letters will be passed on to our family’s future generations and will serve as a reminder of what love, commitment and marriage really are!  That they do span a lifetime, that they are committed in good and bad times – even through wars.  That box is my parents love story…. the legacy they leave their children, grandchildren and one day great grandchildren and beyond….

And now, more than ever, I want my children and their future generations to know my parents story and know that it is part of the fabric of our family.  I come from a long line of committed marriages, beautiful families.  All 5 of my uncles and my aunt that got married are still married or were married to the same person until they passed away.  The generation before them – the same.  Divorce, for the most part, was not a part of our family’s story – until me.  And statistics say that the reality of Divorce in a family will resonate for 7 generations before a cycle is broken.  I do not want that reality for my 4 children.  I want them to look around at the people in their family history and know that they come from a LONG line of committed marriages, beautiful love stories – each with trials that they all overcame, stuck it out and chose LOVE over anything else.  I want my kids to know that when they do chose to marry that the vows they say – mean something and should be honored no matter what comes your way.  I want them to write beautiful love stories for my grandchildren and great grandchildren and have their own BOX to pass on……