The Letters
The letters that make up Dear Audrey WWII are the original ones written by my Dad, Lt. Col. Leonard Barnes Main and sent to my Mom, Audrey Gertrude Grala Main starting in April of 1942. Back then, people wrote letters since phones weren't common. The use of green ink, various papers and the handwriting makes transcribing necessary for readability. Postage was free for my dad, although paper and pencil/pen were not. Even still, he wrote almost every day and she saved them through all the moving around, in ever growing bins.
Of course she wrote back but he did not save her letters. Not because he didn’t value them – he did more than anything, especially those letters with pictures. In 1942, writing letters was just how you communicated so why would he think anything of it and keep them. Also, inspections played a big part in the decision. He did not have the capacity as a private to keep any letters much less the volume he must have received.
She saved his letters because she loved him and thought they were written so well that she, at some point, wanted to share them. As I was growing up, she would mention them but I thought they were just a bunch of mushy love letters. As she got older though, she persisted in the idea of a book. So (as I got older) I took the bins and sorted through all the envelopes and created binders for each year. I presented these to her and said, "Here's your book". She said, "That's nice but I mean a real book so I can contact Spielberg". By this point Audrey is in her 80s so we forgave her informality. Mr. Ron Howard is also acceptable as a director to tell the story. With apologies, he will always be Opie to her.
Please note that I'm a technical writer by trade so my work has never been interesting, unless you're into policy and procedures. These letters on the other hand are very interesting, detailing the every day life of a new soldier - just married - drafted into the Army. We had only officially been in the war since December 1941. So I started to develop the letters and transcribing them while researching. I created a huge document - almost a thousand pages just for 1942.
That's not something I can publish with my limited skills so I started investigating other options. Why not take advantage of current technology to try and bring the story more to life. So here we are. I'm excited to use this forum and to have a direction for the project. I hope you join me on this journey. Share with others! It's been 84 years since the first letter was sent and since 2026 aligns with 1942 the story will unfold as the letters are posted.
I hope you'll subscribe and comment. Feedback is welcome.
