Sacrifices of War

Ralph and Margie were married July 12, 1941.

The sacrifices required in war are generally tallied at the end, when the battles are done; however, sacrifice does not respect treaties, is not confined by the the shores of the ocean of time. For many its pain washes back over years past exposing the heartache of some previously unimagined future tragedy.

Ralph and Margie had been married only a year and a half when he was drafted in January of 1943. He would see her briefly in September when she traveled by train to Florida where he was engaged in training for amphibious landings, and once again at home in October for a short furlough before he was shipped to England. He would not return home to her again until late December of 1945. His letters over these years are full of his longing for her and tender expressions of his love. "My Darling - Hello, honey. Here's your old man again. May I come in for a few minutes? Thank you. How are you this evening? All right I hope" (Oct 1945).

When Ralph returned home in late December of '45 he could not have known that he and Margie had only a few more years together. By the end of the decade she would be gone, the victim of a brain tumor - the cost of those years spent away from her crashing over him like the roiling surf of a dark and stormy sea in the early hours before dawn.