As a family we discovered the letters from my Grandad to my Grandma after my Grandma died aged 87 in December 2012.
Grandma had over two hundred letters stored in a box, along with photos. The letters are dated between 1942 and 1946 during which my Grandad was overseas in the army during World War II. There were only 2 letters within the collection from my Grandma to my Grandad. In order to preserve the letters, I typed all the letters to ensure that we had a permanent record of the letters saved in case anything should happen to them. During the process of typing the letters I thought it would be nice to try and get them into a book format. With the help of a friend we prepared a layout for a book and I contacted a printing firm who printed several copies of the book for me to give to members of our family. I called the book ‘My dearest’ as Grandad would always start each letter with this opening phrase.
One of the many things that comes out from reading the letters is that Grandad believed the War would be over soon and as a reader knowing the history this is the hardest part to read as there are many more years before they will be able to come home to loved ones.
As a family we have chosen the letter dated 10th May 1945 as Grandad describes that the war is over but there is still loss of life happening. However, throughout the collection of the letters that we have, there are so many experiences documented.
