My wife and I return to the Boardwalk every year on Memorial Day or Labor Day. It started in 1968 when a young sixteen year old girl walked to the Boardwalk every day from her summer home just across the bridge at the Boardwalk.
One day she wrote a “romantic mystery” letter to a boy she had never met, but she knew had dated a friend of a friend. The letter proclaimed her undying love but, alas, it could never be. It was signed “your secrete admirer” and included a big wet lipstick kiss at the bottom of the page. The mystery letter writer would reveal herself a couple of years later in my senior year of High School. 40 long years would pass before she would eventually become my wife.
She ran into me during a football game and confessed to have written the mystery letter as a prank. We both laughed. I immediately asked her on a date and enjoyed her company but by the end of the year she had met the young man who would become her first husband. As we neared graduation, she always remained my friend and was so kind to me even though we where no longer dating. She married shortly after high school and I always assumed she was happily married.
Her marriage lasted only a short time – but I never knew, having lost track of the mystery letter writer. 40 years later I received an email from Facebook. “Is that really you in the picture?” she wrote. Within months we were together and from then on we would be a couple. Now the Boardwalk binds us to our youth and I look forward to walking the Boardwalk every year knowing that my true love is by my side.
