In August of 1962, at the age
of 28, an amazing woman named Lois Schoppe packed her two- and four-year old kids
and their dog into her car and drove up the Alcan Highway. Then a potholed, rock
strewn gravel road thousands of miles long, it wound through endless miles of
desolate, lonely country. Her destination, Alaska and her husband Bill. There
was no looking back.
Except for the one time her eyes were drawn to the rear-view mirror. There stood her dad, waving goodbye
with tears running down his face. “What am I doing?” she thought. Then words
from her husband’s last letter came into her mind. “…just waiting for you and
the kids to get here. All my love and kisses. Your loving husband, Bill.” Wiping
away her own tears, she straightened her back, and keeping her eyes on the rad ahead,
stepped on the gas.
Neither she nor her dad knew how long it would be before
they saw each other again, but the one thing she did know was that she loved Bill
with all her heart and soul and couldn’t wait to be with him, no matter where
or how long it took to get there.
It would, in fact, be over eleven
years before she was able to return to lower Michigan and she could, at long
last, do more than write letters to the family she missed so much.
2 comments:
Your family has a long line of exceptional devoted men I know Lori is crying reading this
Thank you! Lori, Melanie, & I are all lucky to have that too. Now you're making me cry...
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