It gives me great pleasure to be able to share a love letter like this, sent in by one reader who expresses her thoughts and feelings to a past love. Writing a love letter to an ex boyfriend probably seems like a daunting task so I hope this speaks to those of you who sometimes reflect on past relationships with a smile and no regrets!
Dear Bobby,
I hope and pray in the most sincere and affectionate way that this letter finds you in a healthy, happy, and loving life. While we have not spoken in many years, I know through mutual acquaintances that you are married, and have lived with your wife in your present location for a long time. You should know that I am also married, happily, to a loving man that I plan to spend the rest of my life with and with whom I enjoy a wonderful and satisfying existence. But I want you to know that you are never far away in my thoughts, and that because you were my first love I hold you in a special place in my heart. Whether you feel the same about me is something I can only guess, but I hope that it might be true. We certainly had something very special, didn’t we?
I have so many memories of our childhood love affair that are precious to me, but probably my favorite is the first time we met and spent time together. Growing up in a very small town in central Illinois meant that there was not a lot for an 8th grader to do. The local Methodist church which I had grown up attending tried to fill the gap with a new youth group. Meant for young teens and pre-teens, it had the first meeting at the organizer’s big home down on the south side of town. She was a quite religious older woman who saw this group as an opportunity to save some souls and teach a lot of the Bible, but her attendees mostly had other things in mind – like socializing with the opposite sex. I know I did, and that first meeting was when you and I met, and knew that we were made for each other. You were a handsome young man with big brown eyes and a warm smile, a little shy but outgoing enough to get my attention, and new to our little town. I was a bit younger than you, with long auburn hair and bangs coming down to my flashing green eyes. We pretty much fell in puppy love at first sight that very night.
Soon we started spending time together on the school bus, which we both had to take to get to another town, and we found that we had a lot in common. We would talk about music (I was a singer in church) and classes and news of the world, all the time enjoying that spicy and slightly dangerous feeling when our knees would touch, and we allowed the lurching bus to pull us closer together. When a year or so had passed and your parents were used to me, I started getting invited to your home for Sunday dinner after church, and then hanging around for the rest of the day.
Those were some of the best times of my life, sitting in that rear dining room with you, holding hands and stealing a kiss now and then. Through the first 2 years of high school we were inseparable, but then came the break-up, and we both know it was not our choice. Your dad had to move for work to a place that was just far enough away to spell the end of our love. I tried to keep it going, but we just couldn’t cope with a long-distance relationship at our age, and we moved on. But I have no regrets about loving you, and I am never sorry that we had such a wonderful time together, even though it had to come to an end.
Stay well, and remember me when you feel sad and wonder if anyone thinks of you – and know that I do, all the time.
Sincerely,
Linda F.