Stories that Charm

In this, the final episode of Fondly yours…, Marguerite is unaware that her last letter to Maude, which was to have been hand-delivered by Jackie, was never received. We find out why as we listen to Jackie’s mother Rose. Marguerite writes in her diary about meeting Bill at Miss Ely’s USO.

It is early in 1943, and the girls know that their last letters to each other have not reached their destinations due to mail censorship. They write hopefully now, counting on their letters arriving this time, due to a plan of Maude and her sailor sweetheart Jackie.

Marguerite writes in December 1941. Pearl Harbor has been attacked by Japan. The U.S. is now at war with Germany and Italy as well as Japan because of the tripartite pact. A few weeks later, Maude writes, describing American GIs arriving in England. The girls describe the rationing going on in each country they live in and Marguerite the luxury of buying new clothes.

It is the start of 1941, and Marguerite writes to Maude, describing her shock at the news of the bombing of England, and ending her letter with a request from her friend for advice on how to write a letter to her former boyfriend in Costa Rica. Maude reports that the arial bombing in England is mercifully in hiatus. She describes the destruction in Liverpool, but also looks hopefully to the future.

Marguerite writes of starting at the Quaker Friends School that she is attending in Baltimore while living with her Uncle Owen and Aunt Eleanor.  Meanwhile, life is much more tense across the ocean.  The London blitz that began in September 1940 intensifies and other cities are bombed including Coventry, and Liverpool where Maude lives.  She writes to Marguerite of the night she was caught out in the August 28 bombing.

Marguerite has returned to the United States and is spending the summer in Hanover, New Hampshire with her grandparents before starting her senior years of high school in Baltimore. Maude writes that on July 10, the Battle of Britain had begun: aerial warfare between the RAF and the German Luftwaffe across southern England. A few days after Maude’s letter, the first air-raid and bombing on Liverpool would occur, on August 28, 1940.

Marguerite writes on her 16th birthday, April 26 1940, that her parents plan to send her back to the United States for her education. Maude describes rationing in England, convoys of merchant ships like the one Jackie sails on, an encounter with Will Hall, and the miracle of Dunkirk. France is about to fall.

Maude and her sister have returned to Liverpool, as have many other child evacuees, as the ‘Phoney War’ continues. Maude meets Jackie, the older brother of Eula’s friend Eileen. He is a seaman in the Merchant Navy, helping to bring essential supplies to Britain. Maude learns that she believes in love at first sight.

Maude writes again from Rose Cottage in Wales, and of her experiences of being an evacuee and living and working on the farm there. Marguerite’s world, in comparison, seems carefree. We hear from her via her diary, where she pours out her heart about friends and boys. The seasons are changing in Costa Rica; she feels homesick for Hanover and re-reads old letters from her father.

War is declared between Germany and England. On this day, Marguerite, in Costa Rica, writes thoughtfully in her journal. Maude, from England, writes of being evacuated to the countryside of Wales.