This is the twenty-sixth of 87 letters exchanged during World War II between Nicholas Salvatore and Elizabeth Galloway.
For more see Nicholas and Elizabeth.
March 19, 1944
Arizona, United States of America
Happy birthday Nicholas!
You should tell a person when it’s your birthday! (For example, mine is July 18. You know me, I expect nothing less than diamond earrings!)
Hopefully the cookies are still edible by the time they get to you. I would’ve sent them sooner but by the time I was finished the kitchen was a disaster. After several attempts I had to finally admit that I had no idea what I was doing and had my mother step in. I hope you like chocolate. (I considered sending my first batches – thought you could use them as weapons, but that might be illegal. There’s an international agreement against the use of deadly baked goods, right?)
Also, I went on a quest to find that song you mentioned. I was beginning to think you had made it up until I talked to a woman at the Red Cross who was a nurse during the last war. Get this – her name is Rose and so it came to be “her song.” She played it for me on the piano and we talked for hours. I don’t know if I believe everything she told me but even if only half of what she says is true, she led an amazing life. It goes like this:
There’s a rose that grows on “No Man’s Land”
And it’s wonderful to see,
Tho’ its spray’d with tears, it will live for years,
In my garden of memory.
It’s the one red rose the soldier knows,
It’s the work of the Master’s hand;
Mid the War’s great curse, Stood the Red Cross Nurse,
She’s the rose of “No Man’s Land”.
Take care medic,
Elizabeth
Next letter – March 31, 1944
Words will keep us together 