Spanning the Miles: A Story of Lasting Love from WWII

By: Beverly J. Graves

This is just a simple love story. But it’s not mine, it’s theirs, Dorothy and Henry Collins. It’s all about their love for each other, which came from a time of great strife. During World War II, thousands of European girls married American soldiers and came to the United States after the war. Like many of them, Dorothy and Henry fell in love in England but were to be separated by two countries and an ocean soon after they were married.

Decades later, their daughter Barbara finds the letters they had written to one another during the long months apart. Their letters are intertwined throughout this story with glimpses of their lives before, during, and after the war. This is a story of their love, which they vowed could withstand any hardship-a love that spanned the miles.

About the Author

This is Beverly’s fifth book. She penned this novel because its subject is so close to her heart; the letters in this book are actual excerpts from her parents’ letters kept in the wooden box behind the bed. It has been her joy to share their story.

Beverly lives in Pella, Iowa with husband, Don. She is retired and volunteers in community events, and she has been involved with community theater for almost forty years, performing in and directing fifty-plus productions. For more than twenty-eight years, Beverly has performed a one-woman show entitled The Reluctant Pioneer written by her friend Muriel Kooi. Beverly has also written several plays, and she organized a children’s drama group at church which ran for eleven years.