Favorite Photo Friday: "Te Amo"

Bryan and I met while we were in high school. He was a senior and one year older than me. Our first date was Junior Prom. We dated all summer and through the fall. Somewhere in the midst of Saturday night parties, hanging out at the park, eating icecream at Grannies and Vanilla Floats at TGIFriday's, Homecoming, numerous movies, a trip to Lake Powell, Sadie Hawkins, etc....we fell in love. So that by the time Bryan was ready to leave on his mission in January 1991, the thought of him being gone for 2 years made my heart just ache.

Bryan told me that he wasn't going to ask me to "wait" for him. It wasn't fair to me, he said. He wanted me to date, have fun. He wanted to write, certainly, and then promised to come find me at college, wherever that was to be, when he got home.

So we wrote letters. Weekly letters while he was in the MTC. But then things got busy, of course. And writing letters was never Bryan's strong suit. I continued to write him every week. He averaged a letter to me about once every two months. But when they did come.... oh, they would melt my heart. And remind me why, of all the other guys I was dating at college, none had come close to taking Bryan's place in my heart.

Bryan sent me this picture, taken in Philadelphia in February 1992, a little over a year after he had been gone. On the back side it said, "To Sarah, with love." And hot on its heels came this post card...the front side which, along with my address, said, "This is just a little love letter. You'll get a real letter soon." The picture and postcard went up on my bulletin board in my dorm room where they stayed for the remainder of Bryan's time away. And now, here we are 18 years later. Both the picture and postcard are safely scrapbooked away in an album now. But I love pulling them out occasionally to reminisce....