Love letter from George HW Bush to Barbara from WW2 goes viral



Historians and journalists on Tuesday tweeted out the hand-written love letter that future President George H.W. Bush sent to his then-fiancée Barbara Pierce on Dec. 12, 1943.
Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian, tweeted that Bush was a U.S. Navy pilot at the time during World War II. The letter written in blue ink on Navy stationery and begins:


The letter in full


‘My darling Bar,
This should be a very easy letter to write. Words should come easily to me and it should be simple for me to tell you how absolute happy I was to open the paper and see the announcement of our engagement, but can’t possibly say all in a letter I should like to.
I love you, precious, with all my heart and to know that you love me means my life. How often I have thought about the immeasurable joy that will be ours someday. How lucky our children will be to have a mother like you.




As the days go by the time of our departure grows nearer. For a long time I had anxiously looked forward to the day when we would go aboard and set to sea. It seemed that obtaining that goal would be all I could desire for some time, but, Bar, you have changed all that. I cannot say that I do not want to go – for that would be a lie. We have been working for a long time with a single purpose in mind, to be so equipped that we could meet and defeat our enemy. I do want to go because it is my part, but now leaving presents itself not as an adventure but as a job which I hope will be over before long. Even now, with a good while between us and the sea, I am thinking of getting back. This may sound melodramatic, but if it does it is only my inadequacy to say what I mean. Bar, you have made my life full of everything I could ever dream of – my complete happiness should be a token of my love for you.

Wednesday is definitely the commissioning and I do hope you’ll be there. I’ll call Mum tomorrow about my plan. A lot of fellows put down their parents or wives and they aren’t going so you could pass as a Mrs. – just say you lost the invite and give your name. They’ll check the list and you’ll be in. How proud I’ll be if you can come.
  Goodnite, my beautiful. Everytime I say beautiful you about kill me but you’ll have to accept it. I hope I get Thursday off – there’s still a chance. All my love darling
 – Poppy
 public fiance as of 12/12/43.’

Barbara Bush, 92, died Tuesday, shortly after her family announced she was in failing health and would decline further medical treatment in favor of "comfort care." There were no details of her specific health problems.