The Love Letter

Many people, if not most people have experienced the bliss of a romantic relationship. These relationships can bring forth the feelings of euphoria and butterflies in the stomach. But there can be the highest high and the lowest low. As long as love is shared between two people there is almost nothing better, but when one leaves the relationship the result can be a broken and fractured heart that may take a long time to overcome and heal. Historically, hand written love letters would be written between two lovers and receiving such letters would be anticipated with a joyous fever. When I was in my early 20s, I met and fell madly in love with a young and beautiful woman. The world seemed wonderful. She wrote many love letters to me and I did the same for her. One day when I was visiting her at her house and talking in her bedroom, she was standing in front of a mirror that sat atop her dresser. She was holding a dog I had purchased for her birthday and looking down at a love letter from me sitting on the dresser. I asked her to hold the pose while I took a photograph because the scene seemed perfect for a drawing. I ended up drawing it in ink and the image looked just like her. I was pleased with the results of the artwork. We dated for 3 years and then I asked her to marry me and she said yes. We set the wedding date and talked about the future like couples generally do. One day when I arrived at her house to go out on a date to a restaurant, her brother came to the front door and gave me the diamond engagement ring that I had given her. He said she was calling off the wedding. I was flabbergasted and taken totally by surprise. I asked her brother to send her to the door so I could talk to her and find out why she was doing this. She refused to talk to me. Over the next few weeks to a few months, I tried to call her, but she refused to talk to me. I was devastated and my heart was breaking with a hurt I had never experienced before. To make the matter worse, she got married on our wedding day to another man, a man who was her boss at work and evidentially had been cheating with while in a relationship with me. It took a long time to heal from the experience. I moved on from this love tragedy and as I look back I found that it was for the best even though I could not see it at the time. Some have gone through these break-ups just as I have and I know that it is painful, but they go on and live their lives and find someone better. When I look at the drawing it does remind me of the pain and sorrow I felt, but in the end everything turned out for the good. Love letters are always a bright spot in remembering a love or even a long past love.