One by one the young men returned in late spring and early summer from the second world war to their families and new beginnings. Glenn Morris, our letter writer, and his brother Ray came home to the small rural town of Richards, Texas from England …Charlie and Marion Boring, Selma’s brothers and C.H. Boring, Selma’s first cousin returned from the Pacific seas…against the odds, they all came home safe and sound. Well, safe for sure. As for “sound” we will never know because discussions of the war were rare. Their experiences on the battlegrounds in the air and on the oceans remained their secrets for the rest of their lives.
Yes, Mrs. Morris, my dear son arrived home safely & we’ve had a lovely 10 days with him. We had his coming home party last Saturday & what a party. Ray will tell you what a lively house this is.
Like you, dear, I didn’t know what to do when the telegram came saying he had landed in England. I laughed and cried together. So I know your feeling when that great big son of yours arrives. He’s a great guy. We’ve put his photo on the piano. I often talk to him.
Pleasure to hear you have 3 children. We only have the 2 boys & my grandson who really is a beautiful child. I’ll send you some snaps when we can obtain some films for the camera. He’s so proud of his dear daddy. Ask Glynn to send me a picture of his wife. She sounds a jolly good sort of a girl. We get very few American boys here now. I see a few was here for J.V. Days; everybody went wild. Tell Ray the Market Tavern was crowded when we got in. You couldn’t get a seat anywhere. My son who works there was tired out…we was all dancing on the Market top.
Give Ray this message from Shelia, “She sends her regards to him & if she weren’t marrying Nash, he stood the second chance.” She’s a sweet person.
I’ll enclose you the recipe of Yorkshire Pudding. It’s really good with roast beef, mutton, or pork. We seldom have a dinner without it in England as it’s very tasty with onions cooked. Let’s hope you make a success of it. It needs a lot of beating up.
Yes, the big family news was that when Glenn came home for furlough in May, 1945 he and Selma got married. Not too long afterwards, Ray married a Texas woman named Mavis Williams who was the younger sister of his mother’s brother’s wife. He had luckily been the second choice of Shelia, his girlfriend in England.
Much to the dismay of their families, Glenn and Selma decided against a wedding at the First Baptist Church where they were members. Instead, they eloped.
Mrs. J. V. Bech is better known to all of you as Lucy, Glenn’s sister, who was married to Terrell when the boys left home. Terrell did also make it home from the war, but Lucy had married another Navy man known as Jay Bech at some point in the interim years. Terrell continued to visit the Morris family in Richards for many years, but he was never mentioned at family gatherings.
Glenn and Selma honeymooned by train to Miami, Florida. That trip turned out to be not quite the Hollywood movie image of their dreams, but they survived it and began a new life together after a war that had forever changed the two teenagers who were forced to grow up quickly. Thankfully, they both came from loving families that continued to support them in their married life.
Selma was 18 years old when she married Glenn who was 20 at the time. In eleven months they would become parents of a baby girl they named Sheila – a name Glenn chose from his brother’s girlfriend in England – with the middle name Rae, a feminine version of his brother Ray’s name.
My father’s letters continued after his marriage to my mother, and later on he wrote to me when I was in college in the 1960s. I will look forward to another series on those entertaining letters, but for now I will leave my family as they were at the end of World War II with all my friends in cyberspace.
Thank you all so very much for reading and for your comments. This journey has been a bittersweet one for me with a roller coaster of emotions. From letter to letter, I’ve had tearful moments interspersed with laughter as I imagined the characters I knew so very well. I hope you were able to see them with me and that you will be inspired to realize the mysteries you may also have tucked away in a box or drawer somewhere. Life is about new discoveries – ask questions you want to know before it’s too late. Open the unopened. Explore. Remember.
This entry was posted in Humor, Lesbian Literary, Life, Personal, photography, politics, racism, Reflections, Slice of Life, The Way Life Is and tagged gi returning home from wwii, letter from mother in england to mother in texas at the end of wwii, letters from soldiers. Bookmark the permalink.
Really enjoyed this! I felt as though I was in Richards Texas!
Thanks so much, Cindy! I’m so glad you enjoyed Richards in those war years…so many emotions for people then. Well, I guess we have so many emotions going on everywhere today, too. Thanks again for reading!!
Your family and friends were all very lucky that everyone came home! Phew.
We truly were! So many didn’t make it.
Thank you for sharing this journey! What an incredible experience it has been!
Your grandfather was such an important part of our family in Richards – Particularly Marion and Charlie…I loved him. So glad you made this journey with me, Heather.
Wonderful finale! What an admirable generation in many ways. I was in Arkansas and wonder if I’ve missed posts.
I need to keep up with yours, too – have gotten behind.
Good blogs are fun to read, but when you get behind it’s harder to catch up. Not like putting down a book and picking it back up!
Dearest Sheila, I had to take a brief break from reading this set of posts, as it stirred up so many emotions about my own parents, but my father in particular. I’m teary eyed now as much for your family as for mine. Their WWII stories, from the homefront as well as the war zones, are indelibly etched into the person I’ve become. Forgive me for not commenting on them all. My heart is with you…our memories bittersweet.
Dearest Ann, it amazes me that our families could have been so different and yet so very much alike. Surely your father and mine will meet in some distant place and finally be able to share their true war stories, the stories they were never able to share with any of us when they returned from the horrible tragedies that define war for all peoples.
I have a second set of wonderful letters from my father to me when I was in college and beyond, but the memories stirred up in me were, alas, also too painful to continue right now.
Thank you as always for your kind words, but more importantly, for your kind spirit.
Perhaps we are Spirit Sisters. I like to think so.