NEW SWEDEN, Maine — The holidays and family memories seem to go hand in hand, and to this day one New Sweden woman holds close the memories evoked from a letter written more than 70 years ago by her Army dad, disappointed that he couldn’t be with her for her very first Christmas.
“It’s meant a lot to me, because I still have it. I’ve kept it in my jewelry box,” said Irma Anderson of New Sweden. “I wouldn’t part with it.”
She recently was inspired to write a letter back to him, and plans to release it by balloon in a special ceremony at the Maine Veterans Cemetery in Caribou. She invites other family members and veterans to join in.
Anderson was born in St. Francis, the daughter of Clovis and Leoneal Jandreau. She was only 5 days old when her father was drafted into the Army and left for Ft. Bragg, N.C., in the early 1940s. He would be away from his family for two years.
A father’s greeting
Clovis Jandreau posted the following on Thursday, Dec. 22, 1943:
My Dear Little Irma Lee,
Daddy is disappointed that he couldn’t send you a Christmas present, but he sure thinks of you just the same. Daddy will try and find something nice for his little girl in the state of Georgia. Now Irma, Daddy wants you to be a good little girl. Don’t cry too much and cause Mommy a lot of trouble because she has enough trouble as it is.
Here’s hoping that your Daddy will be with you two before very long.
Daddy wants you to say a little prayer for him each night so that he will be with you and Mommy soon and we three may be happy together for a long, long while.
Love, Your Dad, Pvt. Clovis Jandreau.
Irma’s story
Carefully preserved, the letter’s ink is faded but still legible after more than 70 years.
Irma guessed she must have been in grammar school when she learned of her father’s note to her. “I was pretty young,” she said.
The letter moved her then and has continued to do so through the years. “It touched me just because he had to leave Mom and I, and I know how hard it must have been, because I was only a baby,” she explained.
She was 2 when her father returned home for good from the service. “I was really kind of scared of him,” Anderson recalled with a chuckle, “because I didn’t know him. And I didn’t like him near my mother — my mother had been ‘mine’ for two years.”
Anderson’s brother, Lincoln Jandreau, lives in Wallagrass, while her sister, Angel Caron, spends winters in Florida and summers in St. Agatha.
“My brother and sister and I each have two children,” she added.
Seventy-two years later, Anderson felt inspired to share her love for her father in her own letter, and though he is gone now she hopes the emotions will somehow reach through the wisps of time and place.
A daughter’s response
Dear Dad,
We had such a wonderful life together and our prayers all those years ago did come true. We were together for a long, long time. I’m writing you this letter and mailing it by a first-class Christmas balloon here at the memorial cemetery here in Caribou, Maine.
You were drafted into the military when I was only five days old. I know how hard it must have been for you to leave Mom and I. Six months later I received the most touching letter I have ever received apologizing for not being able to get me a Christmas gift. I may have been too young to understand your letter, but to this very day, 72 years later, I carry it in a very special place in my heart. The little 5-day-old girl in me can still feel your loving arms wrapped around me when you left for war. We became connected by a heavenly rubber band that stretched across the miles.
Life is going well for me, Dad. My brother Lincoln (Buck) and sister Angel are doing well also. I have a wonderful man in my life who watches over me and treats me like a queen. When you receive this letter, could you please tell Mom for us that we miss you both very much. You may now know this, Dad, but you were able to give me a gift on my very first Christmas after all. The true gift was the loving, heartwarming words in your letter, that I carry in my heart to this very day.
Now every time I bake pies I hear you say, “Can I have at least two pieces?” and Mom saying, “Slow down, Clovie, other people would like some also” … smile.
I’ll close this by saying: Thank you, Dad, for my wonderful life … I love you. Three little words I should have told you more often.
Say a little prayer.
Your little girl,
Irma Lee Jandreau Anderson
Paying it forward
The ceremony will take place on Saturday, Dec. 12, at 11 a.m. Anyone may write messages to tie to a balloon. To help make it special, the National Weather Service in Caribou will donate a weather balloon and set it up at the cemetery, and Matheson Gas in Presque Isle will donate the helium; smaller balloons will be attached to it and then all will be set aloft.
Anderson hopes the idea of releasing a letter as a symbol of family love will appeal to others, and encouraged the community to turn out for the event.
“For one thing, it’s going to be nice for families of other veterans to send up a letter to a veteran after all these years,” she said. After all, keeping in touch with those serving in the armed forces was difficult then. “There was no communication like there is today between veterans and their families,” she said.
Without Skype and other tools, families and servicemembers could only wish and hope that their greetings would reach their loved ones. That’s why she liked the idea of sharing a heartfelt greeting in a new way.
“You can’t really be together, all you can do is remember them and share the good memories. I think this letter is going to be special to send to him.”
If more people get in on the idea, she feels it would be a testament to not only veterans and current servicemembers, but to their families here at home — and a way, using the popular title, to “pay it forward” by coming together to share smiles, memories, and the love of family.
“It means a lot to have this at the holidays,” Anderson said. “I think it’s going to touch many hearts.”
