Lost letters tell adorable WW2 love story of US airman and his Brit sweetheart
A mum from the US discovered her parents long lost love letters as she posed for a selfie outside the former family home during a trip down memory lane
A woman who flew from her native USA to seek out her British roots got more than she bargained for as she posed for a selfie outside her mum's old home. The current householders saw her there and when she apologised for intruding, they heard her accent and said: 'You must be Grace's daughter?'
Gracie Aspinall was stunned, even more so when they told her: 'We have your mum's letters from your father Ken'. Those letters spoke of a long-lost time, when the love letter was the selfie of its day. Snapshots of emotions and feelings, sent to loved ones across the miles, in times of hardship, and mortal conflict.
The sweet bundle told the love story of her parents, a GI and his English love, who he married four days after VE Day on May 12th 1945. Corporal Ken Aspinall, a 25 year old US Airforce gunner who served with the Eight Army Crop, had fallen head over heels in love with Grace Taylor, 21 from Dulwich and fought hard to win her hand.
Their daughter Gracie from Washington DC told The Mirror she'd been 'touring around the old neighbourhood' of Dulwich in South London, with her British cousin Louise Flood and her husband Dave.
'Dave took a picture of me outside my mum's old house but we didn't realise there was no film in it,' she said. 'I've been a photographer since I was about eight years old and I had never done that.
'So we had to go back again and do it again another day. But this time as we were standing at the door a woman came out.
'I said 'I'm sorry we are taking a photograph here because my grandparents used to live here.' And this young woman said; 'You are American? I have your mother's letters.'
'I didn't believe it. I thought she's got to be wrong, that can't possibly be true because our grandparents died in 1974 and no one in the family has lived there since then.
'Apparently before my mother left England in January 1946, after marrying my dad, she'd put the box of letters up in the attic. '
Her cousin, Louise Flood, said; 'It was meant to be that day, without the camera mishap we would never have found those letters. We just couldn't believe it. They had been up there for more than 45 years. Strange things happen.'
Gracie was then able to fill in the gaps of their love story after reading their correspondence with 'Checked by the US Army' stamped on the front of the envelopes.
She giggled as she said there were also letters from other 'blokes' in the box too: 'My mum was obviously very very popular and had quite a few beaus.
'She did tell me sometimes she would come home at 6am and be late for work (in a dress shop) and when they asked her about it, she'd blame the bombs in Dulwich, there hadn't been any bombs, she'd just been out all night. She would take her gas mask out of the little bag they gave them and put her makeup in there instead.'
Her parents met in Blackpool at a dance in 1943, when Ken was based at a US Army camp in East Anglia.
At first Grace was unimpressed with the Airman so when her brother Peter ran upstairs to tell her 'There's some Yank downstairs for you' - she would go downstairs and tell him; 'Well, I've got a date so I'm going out'.
Gracie said: 'My father would hang out with my grandparents and they would go down the pub. Eventually my grandmother said to my mother 'you should go out with Ken, he's a very nice bloke'.
But it didn't start well, after the tail gunner stood her up.
He wrote to her from North Africa, on September 23rd 1943, pleading with her to forgive him: 'Dear Grace, I can just about imagine what you are thinking of me. I only hope that you will be able to forgive me for not showing up on the 17th.
'There was no way possible to get in touch with you to inform you that I wouldn't be able to get there….I was looking forward to meeting you and I'm sure we would have had a swell time.
'If by any chance I don't see you again, I want you to know that you made my stay in England very enjoyable...Well, Grace, I hope that this note will help to clear things up a bit until I can see you again. Please write soon and if you feel like bawling me out I'll understand. Love Ken…'
She did forgive him but resisted his efforts to put a ring on her finger.
In a letter from Ken dated June 7th, 1944, after D-Day, he wrote to her: 'Just a few lines to let you know I'm still kicking…I suppose there was quite a time in London the other night. I sure would have liked to be there. I can just see some of those GIs hitting the pubs.
'Of course there's another reason I'd like to be there but I don't have to tell you what that is. I've had plenty of time to think since I last saw you and still feel the same about the whole matter. When are you going to break down and change your mind? I'm still waiting patiently…All my love Ken.'
Finally his persistence paid off and Grace said 'yes' because he was 'such a sweetheart' to her gran, bringing her food when she realised she wouldn't sit down for dinner with them because she didn't have enough rations to go around.
In February 1945 a few months before the end of the war, he wrote: 'I'm looking forward to our marriage so much darling…I waited so long for you to say 'yes' and now know that you will wait no matter how long it may be…'
A month later, he wrote: 'I've been happy before but never quite like this. I know we'll do okay because I want to make you happy darling. No matter how rough things may ever be, we'll always have each other. Why can't time pass a little more quickly.'
They wed a few days after VE Day but never made it on their honeymoon, as they were too busy celebrating the end of the war.
VE Day: 80th Anniversary Magazine Specials
To commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, we bring you two special special collector's magazines that look back at events that led to the end of World War II in Europe and marked a new era.
In the VE Day 80: Anniversary Collector's Edition we share photographs from the street parties that were held all over Britain, while esteemed author and journalist Paul Routledge paints a picture of how the day was bittersweet, mixed with jubilation and hope for the future, as well as sadness and regret for the past. Routledge also recounts the key events of the Second World War, including Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain and Pearl Harbour. The magazine costs £9.99.
Also available is World War Two - A History in 50 Photographs, a definitive pictorial account of the war. Carefully chosen from hundreds of thousands of images, this commemorative magazine shares 50 exceptional photographs - including many rarely seen shots - that capture the devastating moments, horror, hope and eventual triumph of World War Two. The magazine costs £6.99.
You can buy your copies here!
After their wedding Ken was flown home and he wrote 'I'm going to miss you an awful lot. Here's hoping it won't be too long before we can be together for good.
They were finally reunited after the Japanese surrender in September and smitten Grace was on the first ship for 'war brides", The SS Argentina, an ocean-liner converted from troop transport.
She joined four hundred and fifty-two British women, 173 children, and one bridegroom, who left Southampton on January 26th, 1946, arriving in the United States on February 4th.
'Luckily for her they were alphabetical in their placement on the cruise ship, so my mother, being A for Aspinall, was in a suite with six other women but it was beautiful.
'She said she felt bad for the people at the other end of the alphabet because they were in the steerage,' Gracie recalls.
At first after her move overseas they had a 'good life' together in Western Massachusetts until Ken's death on the 36th anniversary of VE Day.
Mum-of-two Gracie, a technical writer, says she has always felt a bond with England, where her daughter has settled after attending Oxford.
'It feels like home when I come back to England to visit,' she said. 'I get mistaken for a Brit when I speak.'
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