Earl loved to celebrate special occasions and always managed to surprise me with something very special on those romantic holidays such as anniversaries of when we met, married, and of course, Valentine’s Day. He’s been gone now for almost 18 years, and it must be true that love never dies because he still finds ways of making those special days surprising for me in some way. Therefore, I wasn’t surprised today, while searching through the archives of old Nightingale documents, papers, scripts and photographs, that I found, yet another treasure -a treasure that has been tucked away since World War II.

Along with pictures taken in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, I found three poems that Earl wrote. Two of them were type written, and a third in beautiful hand.

The poems speak of war as seen through the young, nineteen or twenty-year old eyes of StfSgt. Earl C. Nightingale, USMC, and I read them through tears realizing that love, though separated by this thing we call death, lives on and cannot be distinguished. He still sends me gifts.

Some may say that these are hardly romantic poems, but I believe they speak from the heart of one who had great love for life and mankind, and written by a very young man who saw clearly the emptiness of war.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to post some of the old photos to my other site at Hello World. You will be able to view them by going to http://www.helloworld.com/members_myworld.aspx?ID=nightingale and click on Photos. For video messages click Podcasts.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Celebrate your love!