"I was really surprised. I had no way of knowing that it would show up in the way that it did," veteran Bill Moore told KMGH.
A glimpse into the love of two World War II sweethearts. Bill Moore wrote Bernadean Gibson a love letter in 1945 — a letter that just now made it back into the hands of one of their children.
"'I'm really the luckiest guy in the world, you know. And you are the reason, Bernadean. Even your name sounds lovely to me.' ... That was the one thing I really remember her talking about was just it meant everything to get that letter," the couple's daughter, Melinda Gale, said.
"Her mom hung onto them for years," KMGH reported.
"And we can't find them," Gale said.
But now their daughter, Melinda Gale, has at least one of those letters written by her then-20-year-old father, thanks to a woman who found the letter with an old record she bought at a thrift shop. That woman, Ilene Ortiz, contacted Colorado's KMGH, which helped find Gale.
"Dad is now 90 years old, so many great, wonderful years together that just going back to the very beginning is always something that's an amazing thing. ... 'I have never ever been so homesick for anyone in all my life as I am for you.' ... This is the most wonderful gift. Amazing. And very, very special."
And now, her father, Bill Moore, has gotten a chance to reread those sweet words, too.
"'So lovely, darling.' ... I knew I wanted to marry her," Moore read.
"When you're apart for that reason, not knowing if and when you'll ever see that person again, every chance you got to communicate was wonderful," Moore said.
"Moore can laugh through his tears at his choice of sweet words," the reporter said.
"It probably gets worse.," Moore said.
Gale's parents, who met when Bernadean was still in high school, were married for 63 years before Bernadean died in 2010 and the letters disappeared. Bill now lives in an assisted-care facility for veterans.
"I loved her," Moore said.
