Here is a very sweet letter Uncle Bill wrote to Marie.

Journal, meaning a collection of thoughts, incidents and any experience that might be something big or little, serious or funny, and especially the latter, for without laughter one might as well give up. I suppose the definition by Virginia Wolf, which appeared in the paper, and I sent to Christy, would be a better one., but I now have it not, and Christy will give it to me, unless she 'trun' it out.

(I searched the web and found the quote of which he may be referring to.) "The beauty of the world which is so soon to perish, has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder."

Now the first of these is lengthy, but I hope most of them will be brief. Then maybe someone will read them. (My Comment: I did and decided it had to be shared.)

This happened after I had returned home from serving four years in the U.S. Navy, and most of that with the Asiatic fleet. So everything at home had changed quite a bit, including the neighbors. And one who soon became a regular visitor whenever I appeared outside, was little Gloria. Not yet in school, so she must have been less than 5 years old. Now we took to each other at once, and she became my companion on my little errands that took me to town, and this was usually in a model "T" Ford roadster, and with the top down. On one trip, I was carrying Gloria out of the car to put her on the sidewalk where there was a rather high curb. Meeting a businessman who knew me, and chatting briefly, he asked if Gloria was my little girl and I said, "No, she belongs to the Hartleys", amd Gloria giggled, and thought that was funny.

We Became fast friends, and since I did not go to work for a while, I had plenty of time to spend with Gloria. We were building a small goldfish pond in the backyard, and I would take little trips out in the countryside to pick up assorted rocks that could be found along the road, which we intended to place around the edge of this pool. Gloria went along for these little trips after securing her mothers permission
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Now I had started dating a number of girls, and not having had all that much experience while in China, I was making up for lost time. Now we had a lot of Zinnias and Asters about the house, and I usually picked a bouquet of these for the girl whom I was dating, and this added much to the merriment of the neighborhood children, because it seemed this was not the custom.

But I kept doing it anyway, and usually under the watchful eyes of Gloria, who knew exactly what I was doing, and where this bouquet would end up. One late afternoon, after I had picked my bouquet for my date that evening, I came back to join Gloria where she was sitting under a tree watching me, and she looked up at me and said, "Bill, will you wait for me"?

Now for a moment I did not know how to answer her, and could see by her expression that her question was a serious one. I cannot remember what I mumbled in reply. Children can be so open and direct, and of course what she meant was for her friend Bill to lay off dating these other girls, and just wait for a while and she would be old enough, and everything in our world would be fine. And this wise beyond her years little angel, could no doubt see right through my confusion, and probably learned right then and there how dumb these men can be.

To receive such an open declartion of love from one so young really overwhelmed me, and little Gloria captured my heart forever. We said no more about the matter then, and some days later I was walking down the street with my girl, and met Gloria walking between her parents holding each others hands. She had already spotted me, and gave me her shy little smile, but I felt terrible, feeling as though I had betrayed the one I love.

Gloria died when she was only seventeen. And in my heart, she is still very much alive. Aloha, Gloria... from your friend Bill.