The Greatest Love Story Ever Told

Edward and Bella, Jack and Rose, Buffy and Angel*, Jim and Pam... all of these couples have got nothing on Betsy and Joe.  My dear friend Laura recently introduced me to the Betsy-Tacy books, written by Maud Hart Lovelace.  These stories are based on Lovelace's life and friends and take place in the early 1900's and continue until the First World War.  Betsy and Joe meet in high school, and we watch them go from high-school-rivals, to friends, to "boyfriend-girlfriend," to estranged lovers, and finally to newlyweds!  

I just finished reading Betsy's Wedding, and here are some of my favorite "Aw..." moments:

After a quarrel, Betsy and Joe are estranged for a few years while she tours Europe (aka "The Great World").  She gets this telegram from Joe:

"BETSY.  THE GREAT WAR IS ON BUT I HOPE OURS IS OVER.  PLEASE COME HOME.  JOE." (1)

Right? Right?

Part's of Joe's marriage proposal:

"I love you.  I love you from that cloudy dark hair down to your slender feet.  I love your eyes, and your soft hands, and your sweet voice, and the way your laugh chimes out.  Everything about you is enchanting to me.  But Betsy, it's lots more than that... I can always talk to you... I can make plans, or puzzle out ideas, or build castles in the air.  I don't need to think what I'm saying or guard my words.  You understand my high moods and my low ones.  You understand me, I guess.... Betsy, you fit into my life as perfectly as a rose fits its stem.  You and I match like the pieces of a broken coin.... Love me always, Betsy!  I have given my whole heart to you." (2)

When Joe gets called off to war:

"Listen, Betsy!  Listen hard!  I'm coming back.  Do you hear?  I'm coming back.  And I'll love you even more than I do now, if that could possibly be.  I'll miss you so.... Nothing in the whole world could come between you and me, Betsy.  We're...woven together.  You know that.... I know, I feel it in my bones." (3)

I didn't want to put long excerpts--just quotes--but their love story is just so magical and romantic, but also real (because it's based on a real story, I guess).  They have struggles and hardships and trials and disagreements, but they have each other.

Look at me getting all sappy about a children's book.

 

*or Spike, if you prefer
1.  Lovelace, Maud Hart.  Betsy and the Great World.  p. 352
2.  Lovelace, Maud Hart.  Betsy's Wedding.  pp. 387-8
3.  Betsy's Wedding.  pp. 631-2