When we downsized, this box, which had no key and none of our keys on rings fitted it, came with us. So, we had to find a locksmith.
The name Beeler came up, along with a bunch of other names.
I dropped into the store and it happened that Steve was at the counter and, after telling him that I had no idea what was in the box, though I thought it could be letters, he tried one of his many rings of keys. None fitted. I lost count of how many rings of old keys Steve tried, but none fitted. Eventually, Steve called Dad Mike from the back of the store and he could not find a key which fitted. It really had them puzzled: this had never happened before. Mike decided that if he found a key which seemed like it partly fitted, he might be able to cut it: so he did and it did! These two had already spent almost an hour trying, so when Mike eventually cried, ‘It works’ everyone was joyful. I could not thank the owners of Beeler Security Service enough for the care and time Steve and Mike took over one old writing desk and I wrote a great review on Google.
On opening it, we found out that it was an old writing desk, even equipped with an ink well. The ink was dry!
The letters were dated 1951 and 1952 and it showed that while each of us was in a different university, we wrote to each other daily. This habit continued even while I was in Canada for nearly two years, although then it became a weekly mail. But, in those days, I could write and mail a letter on a Sunday afternoon, My Beloved received it usually on a Thursday and she would respond over the weekend, so I would expect a reply about 10 days after mailing my letter. From Moose Jaw, Canada to Southampton, England and return!
Mike and Steve asked me if I wanted to open the box and, on doing so, inside were love letters written from and to my Darling wife, who died in July 2023, after 68 years of wonderful marriage, but we both knew when we were 13 that the other was THE ONE.
I made a fateful decision: I read one. I could hear her lovely voice in my head, using those silly words that lovers do, or what these two lovers did, a simple one being ‘I lub you!’ for ‘I love you.’ And there were others scattered throughout the usual 3 pages of closely written handwriting. And more when she signed off. Are you surprised I was in tears for an hour or two. Some of you know that Beryl’s parents were teachers and they wanted her to be one, but in order to be that, she could not be married. That was the law in those days. Consequently, they tried every which way to keep us apart. I must say that it was her father who was the ruler of their household and no-one dare upset him or he could go into a long sulk, speaking to no-one for days.
While in England for five weeks last September/October, Jenny, #2Daughter, joined me for the last two to three weeks and she particularly wanted to see some of the old haunts her parents used to escape ‘father’. One was the Cowherds Inn on the Southampton Common. One evening, I took My Beloved there and, after dinner, took her to a large oak tree behind the inn. As the story went in memory, and what I retold to my friends and relations in October, she leaned her back to the oak and I said, I think we should get engaged, to which, to my surprise, she said, no, we cannot because of the situation at home. So I repeated the story that she had turned me down.
BUT, on reading one of the letters today, I found a sentence which said that I should not say in a letter to someone that ‘we are engaged, even though it is a secret between us’ and she started writing in her letters to me about being my fiancée. I do not remember ever having asked her again and to which she must have said yes. WOW!
Some day I must finish reading the letters and discover more secrets, such as, when and where did I propose. Apparently, we had decided to have two children, but four if we could afford it. As it turned out, we must have made enough to have not just four, but five!
From time to time... 