Many journalists and historians reminded us on Tuesday of the hand-written love letter that future President George H.W. Bush sent to his then-fiancée Barbara Pierce back in Dec. 12, 1943.
Presidential historian Michael Beschloss posted a tweet stating that George H.W. Bush was a U.S. Navy pilot at the time during World War II. The letter begins with “My darling Bar.” written in blue ink on Navy stationery.
George H.W. Bush begins the letter by telling his fiancée how happy he was to read their engagement announcement in the newspaper.
‘I love you, precious, with all my heart and to know that you love me means my life. How often I have thought about the immeasurable joy that will be ours someday. How lucky our children will be to have a mother like you,’ said in the letter.
The lovely couple met at a Christmas dance while they were teenagers. The future President was an 18 years old naval aviator in training, and Barbara was 17.
The only love letter Barbara Bush kept from George HW during World War II (the others were lost). It is dated December 12, 1943. “How often I have thought about the immeasurable joy that will be ours someday. How lucky our children will be to have a mother like you—“ pic.twitter.com/9n9GDx7lAM
— Carlos Lozada (@CarlosNYT) April 18, 2018
Barbara Bush, died Tuesday, at age 92, shortly after her family announced she was in bad health and would decline further medical treatment in favor of “comfort care.” There were no further details of her health problems.
One of her sons, former President George W. Bush, made a statement about his mother calling her ‘a fabulous First Lady and a woman unlike any other.’
George and Barbara were married on Jan. 6, 1945, four months after the elder Bush was shot down over the Pacific.
In the letter, the young pilot goes on to mention the war and the mission, but also how he couldn’t wait to return in her arms. The former first lady kept the letter in her scrapbook.
‘As the days go by the time of our departure draws nearer. For a long time, I had anxiously looked forward to the day when we would go aboard and set to sea. It seemed that obtaining that goal would be all I could desire for some time but, Bar, you have changed all that,’ – he wrote.
‘I cannot say that I do not want to go—for that would be a lie. We have been working for a long time with a single purpose in mind, to be so equipped that we could meet and defeat our enemy. I do want to go because it is my part, but now leaving presents itself not as an adventure but as a job which I hope will be over before long.’
‘Even now, with a good while between us and the sea, I am thinking of getting back.This may sound melodramatic, but if it does it is only my inadequacy to say what I mean. Bar, you have made my life full of everything I could ever dream of — my complete happiness should be a token of my love for you.’