Stories Encourage Faithfulness

Dear Ann Landers: I’m so glad you decided to continue running “how we met” stories. I could write a musical comedy about how my wife and I met. I hope you will print our love story.

While a student of architecture at MIT, I saw Linda Moody, a featured tap dancer, at the Coconut Grove in Boston. I saw her perform her routine again at the Rainbow Room in New York. I thought she was terrific.

In 1941, I was stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. In the first USO show to come through, Linda was one of the dancers. Then, in July 1942, the USO show came to entertain us in Bermuda. There was Linda again, only this time, I was determined to meet her, and I did. We played pingpong at the USO Center, and I put my best foot forward. She agreed to a date after her show the next night, and we danced under the stars to a calypso band. We had four more dates before she left. We wrote each other every day, but the mail was sporadic, and our letters sometimes arrived in bunches.

In order for me to move up in line to get my leave, I told headquarters that I needed to go home because I was going to get married, even though I had not mentioned this in any of my letters to Linda. I was surprised to learn that Linda told her boss the exact same thing in order to take time off her contract. In May 1943, we took a train from Washington to Texas to see my mother, and that was where I officially proposed. Linda’s mother flew in from New York, and Linda and I were married in my family’s living room. We spent our honeymoon on the train to New York, delayed by floods in Oklahoma, but we couldn’t have cared less.

On another leave, we bought a house, and Linda got pregnant. Her mother and grandmother came to help out. When I was released from duty and reached home, I had a new home, a new wife, a new baby, a mother-in-law and a grandmother-in-law to greet me. How lucky can a guy be?

Last May, we celebrated our 54th wedding anniversary with our two children and two grandchildren. When I think that all this came out of four dates in Bermuda, I know I have truly been blessed. - Charles in Commerce, Texas

Dear Charles: What a beautiful love story. Thank you on behalf of all the young people you have inspired to keep the faith. Here’s one more:

Dear Ann Landers: I’m delighted you’re still going to print “how we met” letters. Here’s mine. I met my future wife at the drinking fountain on the third floor of the Livestock Exchange building in Sioux City, Iowa.

I asked her for a date, and she said she’d love to go out with me. Unfortunately, I didn’t show up at the appointed time. Instead, I was in South Bend because I had an opportunity to see Notre Dame play Iowa. The quarterback for Notre Dame was the famous Johnny Lujack, and I was a big fan of his.

Thankfully, my wife-to-be forgave me for standing her up. I always told her the only reason I married her was because her name was Luella or “Lu,” and mine was John or “Jack.” Get it? John Lu Jack. We have five children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. - Jack in Dell Rapids, S.D.

Dear Jack: When I spotted “Sioux City,” my eyes lit up. That is where I was born and raised, as my readers certainly know by now. Thank you for a bit of nostalgia. I remember the Livestock Exchange building. I wonder if it is still there.