“Wish You Were Here”
Another photograph shows the Seattle waterfront and a streamlined passenger vessel.
Turn it over and there is another message:
“Wish you were here.”
It is such a familiar postcard phrase, but in the context of their lives, it means something more.
My father wasn’t on vacation. He was in the service. Mary was thousands of miles away in New Hampshire. They were moving toward marriage while living with one of the realities experienced by countless couples during World War II
He was seeing places she couldn’t experience with him.
So he sent her the picture.
And on the back, he told her what he really wanted.
He wished she were there.
Read More From Nancy
My Father: At Nineteen
Among my father’s papers was this personality assessment, written when he was nineteen years old. He had likely just finished high school and, like many young adults, was trying to determine what direction his life would take. During this period, he explored a variety of interests through correspondence courses in subjects such as cartooning, commercial […]
Searching for His Next Chapter
As I continue sorting through the papers my parents left behind, I am discovering that many of them are more than old documents. They are snapshots of lives in transition. They capture moments when the future was uncertain, when important decisions had not yet been made, and when my parents could not possibly have known […]
“Living for Just You!”
Another photograph shows Seattle’s Aurora Bridge stretching across the landscape, with Mount Rainier visible in the distance. On the back, my father wrote: “Living for just you!” It is another remarkably personal message preserved on the back of an otherwise ordinary souvenir photograph. My father could have written something about the bridge, the view, or […]
