My cousin, it turns out, has a binder with all my grandparents’ love letters to each other while they were engaged and were in different states for part of that. I had no idea.
“Frances Marion, dear,
….I am just begninng to realize how completely the thoughts of you filled up my life. I wonder that I got anything else done. I watch every corner with a half conscious hope that you will come around it. As I sit alone at lunch or dinner, I look up suddenly once in a while to catch your eye–not there. I am most happy to know that I can go peacefully on now , secure in the knowledge of your love and faith in me. It stands about me like a guard, and an inspiration. May God always keep it so.”
Signed and dated June 22, 1922.
And as another cousin chimed in, “m’dear” was Grampa’s word.
And world. They were married 72 years.