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Author Larson remembers how she met the love of her life. However, she was married to another man. Meanwhile, her dream lover was involved with someone else. In 1957, she first encountered Lyle Larson, "the most handsome man I had ever seen." They would be free and ready to marry more than twenty years later. Contacting him shyly after a portentous dream, they began to correspond. Both were lonely, and both needed aid and comfort. They exchanged letters, shared their romantic feelings, and recounted daily happenings with humor and flirtatious touches. They married in 1982. Despite health issues, financial hardships, and occasional emotional flare-ups, the couple's love did not wane as they worked hard to sustain their seemingly destined relationship. After Lyle died in 2013, the author began to collect and array letters, journals, and recollections to share with others.
Larson has gathered rich, relevant materials spanning her thirty-one years of closeness with her "once in a lifetime" man. Photographs provide a poignant reminder of Lyle's love of nature, proclivity for hard work, and family background. Larson's writing depicts their shared legacy of the determined immigrant stock who settled in America's northern regions. The author, who grew up on her grandparents' ranch after her parents' divorce, raised two children, put herself through college, and worked in the prison system, among other admirable endeavors. She has a love of words, especially song lyrics, having composed emotive poetry describing her love for her husband. She vividly recalls his last hours, their last kiss. Her book will provide special inspiration and comfort to those who may face the illness or loss of a beloved spouse and offers, as well, a reminder of an earlier generation of tough Americans who faced the Depression, war, and other hardships with grit and grace.