In 2015, the virtual reunion of Norwood Thomas and Joyce Durant Morris made headlines. They were apart for 70 years, married other people, and had children and grandchildren. Their lives were good, but when they saw each other for the first time on Skype after decades apart, the memories came flooding back.
Norwood and Joyce’s love story started on the River Thames in 1944. After dating for a few months, they separated when Norwood joined the paratroopers who were dropped into Normandy, France, on D-Day. The separation lasted seven decades until Joyce’s son found contact information for Norwood’s son.
Their first reunion was via Skype in November 2016, with Norwood living in Virginia Beach in the U.S. and Joyce in Australia. The world fell in love with their story, and a GoFundMe campaign was started so the former lovers could reunite. Air New Zealand offered to fly Norwood and his son to Australia.
Norwood and Joyce finally shared a hug in February 2016 when they reunited Down Under. They spent a couple of weeks together, including Valentine’s Day. Hopefully, the lovebirds get another reunion in the afterlife. Joyce passed away 10 months after their reunion, and Norwood died in February
Bessie Moore and Chris Barker worked together at the post office. They were friends but nothing more. But as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Bessie realized her feelings for Chris when he was shipped to Africa to be a signalman at the onset of World War II.
Chris started writing letters to family and friends, including Bessie and her boyfriend, Nick. When Bessie wrote back, she said she was no longer with Nick and then admitted her feelings for Chris.
“Dear, dear, dearest Elizabeth. What are you doing to me? What are we doing to each other? How did I not see you? Why was I blind? What can I do?” Chris wrote in a letter sometime in August 1944. This letter was inside a blue box that Chris gave his son Bernard just before Chris’s death.
The box contained hundreds of other letters between Bernard’s parents, Chris and Bessie. Despite the harrowing war, the two found each other again
When love is as strong as what Walter Stewart and Laura Versfelt shared, nothing will ever break the bond apart, not even war. Their love story started when they shared a table in school one day in 1940. They dated, married in 1941, became pregnant, and then lost the baby.
Walter and Laura were still mourning their loss when he was shipped to Hawaii to serve in the Navy in December 1943. When the war ended, there was only one thing he wanted to do: Go home to Laura. They reunited, had a family of four, and stayed happy together until Walter died in 2013.
“She’s what I needed to fill in the blanks,” Walter said of Laura in the book
Another romantic story from Cindy Hval’s War Bonds book is about a Navy surgery technician who fell in love with a Marine dietician in the middle of the war.
Walt Powers enlisted in the Navy in 1943 and met Myrt Mueller at the base. Mueller, an Oregon teacher, wanted to protect her students’ fathers who were forced into the war. So, she joined the Marines. She was not sent to the battlefield, which was serendipitous for her and Walt.
He was immediately smitten when they met. It solidified when he asked her for a bike ride, and she said they could do so after church. Walt was elated to find a good girl. They were just getting acquainted when he was shipped to Japan and China as the war waned. However, it did not stop their communication, and through letters, they fell in love.
They got married shortly after Walt got back home in 1946
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