Love letters never get old.  They just keep on giving, long after the intended message has been delivered.  I’m talking years and years later.

There I was, cleaning out a closet filled with ‘stuff.’

I made nice neat piles of used clothing in one corner of the room and there were shoes I no longer wore in another pile.  The luggage that still had plenty of plane rides  and train rides left in them were stacked up too.

I was even in the mindset to donate a couple of Leroy’s gently used winter jackets to the ‘donate a coat’ group, thinking that a few big men out on the street would be a lot better off if they had these jackets to keep them warm.  These coats had been in very cold and unsettled spots around the world at one time, and they kept a hard working, big man warm there and they would work their magic on the streets of Maryland too.

When ever I prepare to donate goods like this, I always take the time to go through pockets and zippered pouches just to make sure I’m not sending something I shouldn’t…..I am SO glad this time.

“Laurie…I’m at home, call me when you get here. This will probably be one of the toughest night’s we have had to face. Just remember, that  I love you very, very much, and there is no crisis or problem that love cannot defeat.

Love, Leroy”

It was a folded up piece of white paper. The letters CBS were printed on the top left hand side.  It was typed, except for his signature.

I’m still trying to figure out exactly what crisis we were facing that led him to write this note to me.  I have some ideas because we never had that many really bad things that would have prompted him to write something like this.  It clearly happened during our years together at CBS NEWS.

Whatever the critical situation was, I guarantee you, it in no way matched what we faced together in cancer world.

How I wish I had found it years ago, when we could have shared in its meaning…..again.

Love notes might yellow with age, but they never get old.