![]() While there was no way for Bill to mail his dispatches to his beloved, he stored them in a metal tin until the day he would see Sarah again. Thousands of miles away, Bill was writing too. For 11 months, she talked about the snow in Wisconsin, her busyness at work, and her trust that God would find a way to bring the couple back together. Sarah received the news with a heavy heart, but never stopped writing to her beloved. ![]() Eventually, the War Department paid Sarah a visit to inform her that Bill’s plane had ditched in the Adriatic, and that the military believed that Bill and the other airmen were being held in captivity in a German prison. Sarah’s heart and soul told her that Bob was in trouble but alive. Bob and friends would be imprisoned for the next 11 months.Īt home, Sarah noticed that the mail “train” from Bill had been interrupted. On day seven, a German U-Boat spotted the airmen and took them captive. For 6 days, Bill and crewmates were adrift in the Adriatic. Bill’s arm was badly broken in the crash, but he could muster enough strength to gather supplies and a raft before the plane sank. In August 1944, Bill’s B-29 was shot down over the Adriatic Sea.Ī skillful pilot managed to ditch the plane in the water with no loss of life. “God is good to us,” become a consistent refrain in the ongoing stream of mail. ![]() In their notes to one another, they called upon a higher power to infuse hope and peace in the other. Over the months, the couple started to write about the importance of faith. While every line of the texts was cherished by the recipient, Sarah and Bill knew that a lot had transpired since the letters were pinned. The letters became a lens to the recent past. Because of the distance between the lovers and the limitations of transportation, the letters were often delivered three weeks or more after they were written. Often, the letters contained raw references to hardships at home and the brutality of war. Sometimes the letters were filled with the beautiful trappings of love and desire. Bill and Sarah wrote to one another weekly. In the days before email servers and digital cell phones, the couple relied on an antiquated style of communication to keep the home fires burning. 8 months later, Bill was learning how to navigate the giant bombers that would seek to subdue the Axis war machine.īill and Sara wrote letters to each other weekly. After a teary goodbye at an Army Air Corps reporting station, Bill went off to war while Sarah vowed to support her from the home front. An ROTC student, Bill heard the call to enlist, and had no qualms about rising in defense of freedom. ![]() Sarah was working as a typist in an automotive plant when the war started, while Bill was a freshman at the University of Wisconsin. ![]() Six weeks later, the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor. Their courtship was rapid and glorious, culminating in an engagement that November. Sarah and Bill met on the streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in August 1941. Separated by distance and war, the couple recognized the value of every moment, and learned to stoke the fires of connection even while facing profound separation. To inspire your discernment of the importance of honoring the everyday moments, consider the story of Sarah and Bill. To create a marriage with substantial “staying power,” it is important for us to honor every moment as sacred. Given all the busyness of life, we may begin to neglect the home fires. Not long after the honeymoon, we start to take our partners for granted. ![]()
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