Fact meets fiction in Dandi Daley Mackall's incredible love story, "With Love Wherever You Are," a fictionalized true story of a WWII whirlwind romance and wedding based on over "600 letters tied together with boot laces since 1945." Letters Dandi's father gave to her when he was dying and asked her "not to read" until he and Dandi's mother had passed on.
While her father believed her mother wouldn't want anyone reading about their "mushy melodramas," Dandi believed he was wrong. However, she honored her father's request and waited until her parent's death to write this captivating love story from the perspective of a "real-life couple" from "the greatest generation."
The story begins on December 7, 1941 when student nurse Helen Eberhart, Dandi's future mother, heard over the hospital's PA system: "President Roosevelt says the Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii from the air..." Stunned, everyone stood around hospital beds and corridors, worried about family, more attacks and if they could complete their nursing degrees and internships. The war until now had seemed distant and far away and Helen didn't know she would soon ask, "Where do I sign up?"
Meanwhile in St. Louis, Missouri, Intern Frank Daley heard the hospital's chief of staff announce "...there has been an enemy attack on our forces...a surprise air attack with multiple explosions...and fatalities..." Until the announcement Frank's overriding concern had been to finish his internship and add MD to his name like all the other interns. For that to happen now, Frank and the other residents would have to enlist with a deferment, hoping the war would be over in a matter of weeks and they wouldn't be needed.
Thus begins a powerful and realistic love story that captures the love, faith and sacrifices of a young doctor and spirited nurse drawn together after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Although it was common knowledge war romances never lasted, Army nurse, Helen Eberhart and Lieutenant Frank Daley, M.D. defied the odds. Their powerful love story reflects the patriotism, the danger, struggles and loneliness of war and their touching concern and care for the "desperately wounded patients" from the "front lines of Europe."
Dandi breathes life into a couple molded by the depression years, a couple who served with honor during WWII and returned home to help rebuild a nation. She knew them as parents. The reader gets to know and love them through their letters and photos. Dandi's strong and warm characterizations combine with realistic dialogue to reflect the historical times and wartime experiences. This is an exceptional, well-done historical romance that will live long in your memory!