Why I Shared Our Love Letters
Fran saved the letters we wrote before we got married. Years later, with her blessing, I turned them into Sealed with a Kiss so our family could know that part of our lives.
As told by Bob Zielsdorf
The idea started with Fran and a pretty little box. She'd saved the letters we'd written to each other before we got married. One day when our children were still little, she was home sick and had time on her hands. She took the letters out, put them in order by date, and read her way through eight years of our lives.
She told me she'd had fun reading them, but boy, were they boring in places. I figured she was right. I also wondered whether there might be a story in there somewhere. I was busy working, so the idea stayed with me for years before I did anything about it.
What I saw when I read the letters in order
I'd wanted to write a book in retirement. When I finally retired, I got out the box and read the letters from beginning to end myself. I could see what Fran meant about the dull parts. We were writing to each other about our lives as we lived them. Still, with the letters in order, I could see the two of us growing up on the page. I could also see the makings of a story about life in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
I took a writing class to sharpen my skills and told the class what I had in mind. Suzanne Fox, my instructor, thought I ought to write the book. So did my classmates. Their encouragement helped me commit to it. Suzanne went on to coach me through the book and became my editor.
Before I could share our letters, I needed Fran's blessing
Fran's a private person, and there's personal stuff in those letters. They belonged to both of us, so I needed her agreement before I could go ahead. She gave me her blessing, and with her support and Suzanne's help, the letters took shape as Sealed with a Kiss: An American Love Story in Letters.
A love story, a coming-of-age story, and a look back
I think of it as three books in one. It's the story of two people falling in love and maturing together. It's also the story of how we grew up, from meeting as young teenagers to getting married in June 1965. And it's a piece of its time. As the years go by in the letters, the events of the late 1950s and early 1960s are going on around us.
I'd like our children and grandchildren to be able to read those pages someday and see a little of what life was like then. They'll get to meet Fran and me as we were when we wrote those letters, with no idea which parts of our lives they'd one day want to know about.