Love is never easy. It's especially difficult when you love a Marine. I knew the risk when I said "I do," but I chose to love anyway.

In a flash, he was taken from me, and now I'm alone. Struggling and desperate. There's no hope, no future. Just the endless cycle of day-to-day survival. But a letter returned could change all of that.

Hope and love often come from the last place you'd think to look, when you least expect it.

I was a lost, broken soul, tortured by the memories of what I'd endured. When I visited that old farmhouse in rural Texas, all I wanted to do was return the letter. Keep a promise to a friend.

What I got was healing. Understanding. The chance to find a measure of peace when all I've ever known is war.

We both lost everything. But in each other, we found something worth fighting for.