In a Remembrance Day post titled "Save the Waltzes for Me: A Wartime Love Story" I recounted the story of how my parents met and fell in love. I knew Dad had asked Mom to marry him in January of 1947 and their engagement became official in February, once he had purchased the ring.
I have since unearthed the complete story of their engagement. I had not thought to inquire how the proposal occurred. I asked if he had gone down on one knee to propose and she said no he proposed through the mail. I was surprised. I had never heard that part of the story. Dad had visited Mom at Christmas of 1946 and they had discussed an engagement. In late January for her birthday, she received the proposal by letter.
Mom lived fifteen miles west of town and Dad lived three miles east of town. The harsh winter weather prevented them from seeing each other from Christmas to Valentine's Day. The mail was their only way to communicate. I can picture Dad mailing that proposal letter and waiting weeks for her reply.
I inquired if Dad had asked her parents for their blessing before he proposed? She just gave me a girlish laugh and said she could not remember as that was a hundred years ago.
In those days there was a country store with a post office a few miles from their farm. On Saturdays, in the summer, Mom and some of her siblings would get fancied up and walk to the post office to get the mail. The D’Amour district post office opened in 1923 and closed in 1965.
It was a long walk, but it was fun to go with the other kids. There was a shortcut through a field by a lake, but they feared the mean geese there, so they took the long way around on the road.
In the winter, someone from the family picked up the mail or the store owner dropped it off. Mom replied "yes" to the proposal by mail and she decided June 10 would be their wedding day.
Dad went to Prince Albert and got the rings. He said it wasn't the biggest set on the shelf, but he did his best. She was eighteen and he was twenty-six. The war was ending, he had his discharge papers and they agreed that farming was his calling.
Eventually, the engagement ring became too thin to wear so she just wore the wedding band. Mom said that diamonds and farming don’t go together. They never had running water on the farm and all that hard work and hauling pails of water wore her ring thin.
In the winter, someone from the family picked up the mail or the store owner dropped it off. Mom replied "yes" to the proposal by mail and she decided June 10 would be their wedding day.
Dad went to Prince Albert and got the rings. He said it wasn't the biggest set on the shelf, but he did his best. She was eighteen and he was twenty-six. The war was ending, he had his discharge papers and they agreed that farming was his calling.
Eventually, the engagement ring became too thin to wear so she just wore the wedding band. Mom said that diamonds and farming don’t go together. They never had running water on the farm and all that hard work and hauling pails of water wore her ring thin.
When I asked her how much a set of rings would have cost then she said about $15.00 as it wasn’t a real diamond. The stone fell out several times over the years and she put it back in. She said it didn’t bother her.
A simple little card like this can become part of the fabric of a life story. It is published in Mom’s memoirs in our family history book. It is forever there for future generations to see and wonder about its story.
Where did he buy the card? How much did it cost? Did he stand there for a long time trying to choose the perfect card or were there only a few to choose from? I picture the hundreds of choices there are now when I buy a card and try to imagine what options he would have had all those years ago. It was Valentine's Day plus their engagement, that is a lot of pressure!
I guess the moral of this story could be - choose a card for your sweetheart very carefully because it could go down in history. If you do cheap out, at least be cagey enough to destroy the evidence afterwards!
What are your Valentine's Day plans!
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