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My own sweet angel: The Love Letters of Peter Page


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Peter M. Page and Ann Pearman

For Valentine’s Day, we bring you a love letter. Peter M. Page joined the US Naval Air Corps after graduating with Princeton University’s Class of 1941. The following letter is part of the correspondence between Page and his fiancée Ann Pearman (nee Aiguier) during his training and military service. (The Peter M. Page papers are housed at the Mudd Manuscript Library on the campus of Princeton University. Click here for more about Page.)

Transcript below images:

Approximately January 20, 1942.
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Peter Page:1942 letter page 1

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Peter Page: 1942 letter page 2

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Peter Page: 1942 letter page 3
My own sweet angel-

I had the most marvelous conversation over the telephone this evening I ever had in my life, with the most marvelous creation in the history of the world — you’ll never know how I felt this afternoon from the second I read that letter until I finally go you on the phone — as soon as I read it there was only one thing left for me to do and that was to call you as soon as possible and find out just what was the story, the trouble, the situation — if you ever doubted in all your life whether I love your or not today should have proven to you just exactly how terribly much you do mean to me – if I’d had to go thru this entire night without knowing the answer, without knowing whether you loved me, it would have been too much. I’ve proven just how weak I am, that I couldn’t live without you — you mean so much to me that it terrifies me to think what would happen if you left —– I was going to stay in town tonight and have a few drinks with the boys but after talking to you, everything else lost all interest for me and after a nice big steak dinner I came back here to the barracks where I could write you for the third time today. All I can think of is you, my dear-heart; you’re in my heart twenty-four hours a day and facing the next four months without seeing you is the blackest outlook possible — how can I live four months without my "better-half" — its like living without my heart.

Dreamt about you last night – we were back at 10 Rad. Rd and were having some trouble convincing Jeannie that the upstairs instead of the downstairs was the place for her – she finally gave in, dearest, finally —
Good night my precious — I wish you were here with me now, now and always, forever – be a good girl and love me as I love you, completely & eternally
Yours and I do mean Yours
Peter
For goodness sake don’t worry about Ma – how could she keep from loving you as I do — and she’ll just love to see you because she knows how much I love you — You’re getting as silly as usual and that’ll never do.

Peter Page lost his life on February 13, 1943 in the aftermath of the Guadalcanal campaign serving as a Marine Corps pilot. Ann Pearman calls Peter her "first real love" and was devastated by the loss; however she went on to graduate from Vassar and has lived a long and prosperous life.

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