Speaking of Love #5

Love is a long conversation where each tells by gentle words, by glances, by thoughtful deeds and unexpected kindness, that you care, that you understand, that you will be true.

~ H. Norman Wright 

Here is the next installment in the "long conversation" Jeff had with me in the letters he showered upon me after I left Israel (and remember, I'm not quoting from nearly all of the letters he wrote; he wrote every day and sometimes more than once a day, so it would be impossible to include them all!...I'm just picking and choosing from here and there)...

Good morning, Happy -

It is 7:00 a.m. and I just got off the phone with my mom.  She asked about you, and we talked about you for a while.

...

I was thinking how different our lives have been.  My parents lost their 1/2 million dollar house when I was 9 y.o.  That is when we moved to Big Bear and began to "rent" a house.  My family was poor.  I remember a Christmas with no gifts because we had no money - my brother, Greg, was near death in the hospital.  My aunt died and left us a mink coat.  My mom cut it up and made warm winter caps for Greg and I and maybe Kim, too (I don't remember).  But that was my Christmas gift - and boy, was I proud of my mink hat!  I took an old coffee can and glued material around it and gave it to my dad for a paintbrush holder - I remember how he wept when he opened my gift - I hadn't seen him cry too many times - but he really broke down - I wasn't sure why then, he tried to make it out as if he was just happy about the gift.  Looking back, I know now, he was sad - it was a pitiful Christmas and far from exalting a man's pride in providing for his family.  We ate a lot of beans, rice, etc. - cheap quantity foods.  We burned our trash for heat in the fireplace.  We never went hungry, we were always warm, always had a place to sleep, but my life is so different from yours, Happy.  It scares me a bit.  My parents are much more financially secure now, but those years were impacting years on me and the years of wealth are hard to appreciate when you are less than 9 years old.  Every "extra" I have wanted in life, I have had to work hard for and buy myself:  a car, my schooling, all except the fundamentals.  You, on the other hand, have not understood this:  this scares me.  You talk about your fears of me, so now I will hope you can hear and handle mine.  It is not hard for me to give up material things in life - I haven't always had them and know I can be just as happy without them.  Sacrifice comes easy for me.  But my sacrifices to God scare you - O Davene, let us work through all this and not give up so easy, okay?  I love you so much, and love is something I have a very hard time letting go of...

And to that, I say, "Well, that's obvious."  :)  In fact, if he hadn't had such a hard time letting go of love, I'm sure we wouldn't be together today.  His persistence was the key that opened the doorway to our future.

Jeff wrote that letter on June 7, 1996.  A year later was our wedding day.  :)

Jeff left that letter unsealed when he finished writing late that night; and the next morning, he wrote a little more before he sent it on its way to my home in Virginia.  At the end of the letter, he wrote, "I miss you, Davene, and I think all of Israel knows I am in love."

Tonight I say, "I adore you, Jeff, and I think all of the world knows I am in love."    ;-)