Read I'll Be Seeing You Online
Authors: Suzanne Hayes
I'll Be Seeing You
“I hope this letter gets to you quickly. We are always waiting, aren’t we? Perhaps the greatest gift this war has given us is the anticipation...”
It’s January 1943 when Rita Vincenzo receives her first letter from Glory Whitehall. Glory is an effervescent young mother, impulsive and free as a bird. Rita is a sensible professor’s wife with a love of gardening and a generous, old soul. Glory comes from New England society; Rita lives in Iowa, trying to make ends meet. They have nothing in common except one powerful bond: the men they love are fighting in a war a world away from home.
Brought together by an unlikely twist of fate, Glory and Rita begin a remarkable correspondence. The friendship forged by their letters allows them to survive the loneliness and uncertainty of waiting on the home front, and gives them the courage to face the battles raging in their very own backyards. Connected across the country by the lifeline of the written word, each woman finds her life profoundly altered by the other’s unwavering support.
A collaboration of two authors whose own beautiful story mirrors that on the page,
I’ll Be Seeing You
is a deeply moving union of style and charm. Filled with unforgettable characters and grace, it is a timeless celebration of friendship and the strength and solidarity of women.
Suzanne Hayes
Loretta Nyhan
To all the women who have waited... and to those who continue to wait.
Contents
January 19, 1943
ROCKPORT, MASSACHUSETTS
Dear “Garden Witch,”
I’ve stained my fingers blue trying to do this
right.
Tonight, though, I’m feeling rather lonesome and overwhelmed,
so I’m throwing caution to the wind and finally writing to you, a woman I do not
know, with the honest understanding that you might not have the time (or desire)
to write back in return.
I guess the best place to begin is at the beginning, right?
There’s a ladies’ 4-H group that meets at the church hall on
Wednesday afternoons. I don’t really fit in, but I’m trying to pass the time.
Anyway, they didn’t give out real names, only these addresses, you know? And
said if we felt lonesome (which I do) or desperate (which I didn’t...but I feel
it creeping in on me day by day) or anything, we could sit down and write a
letter to another girl who might be in the same situation. The situation. I just
loved the way Old Lady Moldyflower (Mrs. Moldenhauer) said it. What does she
know about our “situation”?
They passed a hat around that held pieces of paper with fake
names and real addresses. I suppose the purpose is anonymity, but I figured if
we are going to write, why not know each other? The paper slips hadn’t been
folded, and the girls were sifting through, picking whichever struck their
fancy. The whole exercise felt silly and impractical, to tell you the truth. I
wasn’t going to take a name at all, but Mrs. Moldenhauer nudged me so hard I
believe she left a bruise on my upper arm. To spite her, I picked last. I guess
the other girls skipped over you because you have “witch” in your fake name. I
feel lucky I got you. I could use a little magic these days. I’m seven months
along now, and Robbie, Jr. is only just two. He’s a holy terror.
Well...here’s hoping you get this and you feel like writing
back. It’ll be good to run to the mailbox looking for a letter without an army
seal on it.
My name is Gloria Whitehall. I’m twenty-three years old. My
husband is First Sergeant Robert Whitehall in the Second Infantry.
Nice to make your acquaintance.
With fondest regards,
Glory
February 1, 1943
IOWA CITY, IOWA
Dear Glory,
I hope this letter finds you well.
I apologize for its lateness, but to be honest I spent a week debating whether or not to pass your letter along to Mrs. Kleinschmidt, my next-door neighbor. She dragged me to the Christmas party for the 4-H, which is when we war wives scrawled our phony names on those slips of pink paper. I was in an awful mood, hence my choice of pseudonym. I do, however, have a lovely garden from late spring through early fall. I can’t say it’s magical, but it definitely has personality. I planted sunflowers last year and they grew to enormous heights, nearly reaching our gutters. Mrs. Kleinschmidt pronounced them “vulgar” and claimed that staring at their round, pockmarked faces gave her headaches. Of course, this is only incentive to plant more this year.
Now, lest you think I truly am a witch, I should tell you about my “situation,” as your Rockport version of Mrs. K. so quaintly puts it.
My husband, Sal, is too old to fight in a war but signed up, anyway, right after Pearl Harbor. Until then he’d been teaching biology at the university here. He spent some years working in a hospital when we lived in Chicago, so they placed him as a medic with the 34th Infantry. Last I read, his division was in Tunisia. I had to look it up on a map.
My boy, Toby, turned eighteen on Halloween. By Christmas he was in Maryland starting his basic training for the navy. On the day he left I was still making his bed and pressing out his clothes, so I’m worried sick about how he’s going to manage. I can’t imagine the drill sergeants are patient.
Toby also looks young for his age. His cheeks are still rosy, and his hair is the color of the corn that grows on every square foot of this state. My parents were from Munich, so I’ve filled him with schnitzel and potato dumplings since he was as old as your Robbie. I’m hoping if he’s spotted by the Germans they’ll take one look and mistake him for one of their own. The Führer’s dream!
Your boy sounds like a rascal. Toby was always quiet, but I do remember those toddler years—chasing him around the backyard, up the stairs, down the street. I didn’t treasure them. I couldn’t wait until he grew old enough to talk to me while we ate lunch. When he did, all he wanted to do was stick his nose in a book.
I also understand about loneliness and not fitting in. I’ve lived in this town for ten years and only have one woman I can call a true friend. Her name is Irene and she works at the university library. We met at a weekday matinee showing of The Thin Man back in ’35 at the Englert Theater here in Iowa City. I was dead sick of sitting by myself at the pictures, so I walked up to Irene and said her pretty dark hair made her look just like Myrna Loy. (It doesn’t, not even if you squint.) She laughed at the empty compliment and we’ve been friends ever since.
Irene is a few years younger than me, shy and unmarried, but I’ve come to realize those types of differences become mere trivialities with the passing of time. She and I meet for lunch almost every afternoon, freezing our behinds off on a metal picnic bench because the navy shut the cafeterias down for aviator training. I would think that kind of instruction would mostly take place in the air, but what do I know? We moan and groan, but I honestly don’t mind the chill. In fact, the lunch hour is the highlight of my day.
So that’s me. Marguerite Vincenzo. Almost forty-one years old. Garden Witch.
It’s nice to meet you over these many miles, Glory. You said you need some magic? Well, I need something glorious. This town doesn’t provide much in the way of that.
Sincerely,
Rita
P.S. The people here call me Margie. I hate it. Sal calls me Rita sometimes, so I’d like to go by that. I hope you don’t mind.