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            <title>As Ever Yours - Love Letters from WWII</title>
            <author>
               <orgName>Tina Padavano</orgName>
            </author>
            <respStmt>
               <resp>Encoded by, </resp>
               <persName>Tina Padavano</persName>
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            <p>This is a born-digital Editorial Introduction for a collection of letters that has
               never been published before. All Rights Reserved.</p>
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         <sourceDesc>
            <p>This is a born-digital Editorial Introduction for a collection of love letters from
               WWII.</p>
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         <p>Around the holidays, I heard my Aunt mention that she had been going through a box of
            her parent's letters from the 1940s. This caught my interest at first but it quickly
            slipped my mind by the end of the night; that is, until it resurfaced when I was
            prompted with a class project in which I was encouraged to find something to transcribe
            and make notes on for a digital version. Having easy enough access to the letters, I
            brought them up to school with me to get to work. I was expecting a few dozen letters,
            but my grandmother took care to save many of the letters she and her husband shared
            throughout the years, so I was shocked when I opened the box to find about 520 artifacts
            inside. The majority of the letters in this box were organized chronologically from 1941
            to 1945, and about half of the envelopes were empty.</p>
         <p>My grandmother, Theresa Geitner, or as she is referred to in these letters, Mrs. Cyrus
            E. Falcon and Tessie, was born in January 1923, and died the year before I was born. My
            grandfather, Cyrus E. Falcon, or Cy, was born in May 1918 and died when I was 5. Sadly,
            this means I really didn't know them. I have heard my mom often speak to how truely they
            loved each other, but I was never ever to grasp the depth of that until I read these
            letters. This project has helped me feel closer to them, especially since they were
            around my age when corresponding. </p>
         <p>My grandmother was 19 and my grandfather was 24 when he first went into the service in
            July, 1942, and saw each other for leave in the summer of 1943 and had a daughter who is
            a few months old in the last letter in this collection, from 1944. Her name is Theresa,
            referred to as "Snooks" in the letters and now as Terry. My grandfather was in Europe
            until mid 1945 and when he returned home they made a beautiful life together. They
            bought that house they dreamed of and my grandfather found that job he was looking for;
            and they filled that house with 7 more children, for a total of 2 boys and 6 girls, of
            which my mom is the youngest.</p>
         <p>In sharing these letters with you all, my hope is that you will find the beauty in their
            relationship as I have, and that you will be able to humanize the out history by connect
            it's major events to the lives of people effected by them.</p>
         <p>These letters have been transcribed to the best of my ability, some words were unclear
            and the format for some was a bit jumbled. My formatting stays as close to the intended
            flow of the letter as possible; therefore, I will note when pages had to swapped to
            allow for better comprehension. You will see that the letters will be titled with the
            date on the postmark of the envelope, but the test of the letters will show the date
            that they were written. </p>
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As Ever Yours - Love Letters from WWII

Tina Padavano Encoded by, Tina Padavano

This is a born-digital Editorial Introduction for a collection of love letters from WWII.

Around the holidays, I heard my Aunt mention that she had been going through a box of her parent's letters from the 1940s. This caught my interest at first but it quickly slipped my mind by the end of the night; that is, until it resurfaced when I was prompted with a class project in which I was encouraged to find something to transcribe and make notes on for a digital version. Having easy enough access to the letters, I brought them up to school with me to get to work. I was expecting a few dozen letters, but my grandmother took care to save many of the letters she and her husband shared throughout the years, so I was shocked when I opened the box to find about 520 artifacts inside. The majority of the letters in this box were organized chronologically from 1941 to 1945, and about half of the envelopes were empty.

My grandmother, Theresa Geitner, or as she is referred to in these letters, Mrs. Cyrus E. Falcon and Tessie, was born in January 1923, and died the year before I was born. My grandfather, Cyrus E. Falcon, or Cy, was born in May 1918 and died when I was 5. Sadly, this means I really didn't know them. I have heard my mom often speak to how truely they loved each other, but I was never ever to grasp the depth of that until I read these letters. This project has helped me feel closer to them, especially since they were around my age when corresponding.

My grandmother was 19 and my grandfather was 24 when he first went into the service in July, 1942, and saw each other for leave in the summer of 1943 and had a daughter who is a few months old in the last letter in this collection, from 1944. Her name is Theresa, referred to as "Snooks" in the letters and now as Terry. My grandfather was in Europe until mid 1945 and when he returned home they made a beautiful life together. They bought that house they dreamed of and my grandfather found that job he was looking for; and they filled that house with 7 more children, for a total of 2 boys and 6 girls, of which my mom is the youngest.

In sharing these letters with you all, my hope is that you will find the beauty in their relationship as I have, and that you will be able to humanize the out history by connect it's major events to the lives of people effected by them.

These letters have been transcribed to the best of my ability, some words were unclear and the format for some was a bit jumbled. My formatting stays as close to the intended flow of the letter as possible; therefore, I will note when pages had to swapped to allow for better comprehension. You will see that the letters will be titled with the date on the postmark of the envelope, but the test of the letters will show the date that they were written.