How to write a romance story
All my father ever wanted as a young man was to marry my mother and start a family — plans that were interrupted when he was drafted into the Army during the Korean conflict.
As he served in Texas, Germany and other parts of the world, there was only one affordable way to stay in contact: writing letters.
Every single day, seven days a week, my mother told me, he wrote a letter to her and she wrote one to him.
Some letters ran four pages long. Some days, they wrote two!
They shared their hopes and dreams, and how they missed each other so.
My father joked that they’d have four boys — a football player, a baseball player, a basketball player and a priest.
Their cursive handwriting was as impeccable and as artful as their words. Their letters offer a case study in the art of romance.
Romance, according to Dictionary.com, is “to court or woo romantically; treat with ardor or chivalrousness.”
“Ardor” defines my parents’ romance especially well: “great warmth of feeling; fervor; passion; intense devotion, eagerness, or enthusiasm; zeal; burning heat.”
Halfway through my father’s two-year tour, my mother stopped writing to him for three weeks.
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Copyright 2023 Tom Purcell, All Rights Reserved. Credit: Cagle.com
