密歇根新闻广播 二战中的情书让我们更近距离感受生命的不平凡

If ever there was a case of love at first sight, it happened on January 17, 1942 at a dance in Asheville, North Carolina.

On that night, 21-year-old Billee Gray met 28-year-old Private Charles Kiley, and after just a couple of weekend dates, they knew they were meant to be together.

It wasn't long before Charles was shipped off to fight in World War II, but the two stayed in touch and forged¹ their love through hundreds of letters.

Charles and Billee's daughter, son, and son-in-law have brought these letters together in a book: Writing the War: Chronicles of a World War Two Correspondent².

Their son David Kiley tells us he first found the letters in the 1990s, but only read through some of them from time to time.

It wasn't until after his father passed away in 2001 that he and his sister really started to dig in and sort through all the letters.

"There's over 800 letters. Many of them were handwritten. So we had to go through and because of age, you know, we had to copy all of them and scan³ all of them so that we could handle them," Kiley says. "So it was quite a project."

Kiley tells us that throughout the process of sorting through the letters and putting together this book, he learned⁴ a lot about his parents and saw a lot of himself in his father.

"It was an amazing window," Kiley says. "I was able to discover where my dad came from emotionally⁵, in his head, to understand him better."

David Kiley will be at Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor⁶ on November 2 at 7 p.m. to talk about and sign the book.

Listen to our conversation above to hear Kiley talk more about his parents, about his experience reading the letters, and to hear some of those letters read by U of M students Meredith Starkman and Graham Techler.

1 forged   

adj. 锻造的，伪造的 动词forge的过去时和过去分词

参考例句：

• A bond of friendship had been forged between them. 他们之间形成了一种友谊的纽带。
• Someone had forged her signature on the cheque. 有人在支票上伪造了她的签名。

2 correspondent   

n.记者，通信者；adj.符合的，一致的，相当的

参考例句：

• He volunteered as a correspondent for the war.他自愿担任作报道这次战争的记者。
• The result was correspondent with my wishes.结果与我的愿望是一致的。

3 scan   

n.审视，浏览，扫描，押韵，细查；vt.细看，浏览，扫描，详细调查，信件扫描（指BBS处理直递邮件或会议邮件时，对所有或特定信区做检查的动作）

参考例句：

• The first scan was bad, so I had to do it again.第一次扫描不好，所以我得重做。
• A scan determines the position of the baby in the womb.扫描可以确定胎儿在子宮中的位置。

4 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

5 emotionally   

adv.感情上，情绪上，冲动地

参考例句：

• a special school for emotionally disturbed children 为精神异常儿童开办的特殊学校
• A wide range of emotionally stressful events may trigger a relapse. 多种令人情绪紧张的事情都可能引起旧病复发。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 arbor   

n.凉亭；树木

参考例句：

• They sat in the arbor and chatted over tea.他们坐在凉亭里，边喝茶边聊天。
• You may have heard of Arbor Day at school.你可能在学校里听过植树节。