A Love Letter to Eugene

[Mrs Jason Whittaker]

I took on a seven day writing challenge and the topic for yesterday was to write a love letter from a fictional character to an anonymous or fictional character. Of course I chose my fictional characters from Odyssey. I thought you all might enjoy it.

Dearest Eugene,

Lately, I have been reflecting on our life together and the moments that mean the most to me. Which moments are those? You might think it was our first meeting in the Campbell College library when you told me about the senagal finfoot. Or the time we traveled to Africa and built the transmitter for the Ashanti village. Maybe the time we left Odyssey in the middle of the night with the RWS research or the hasty wedding at my father’s bedside. Perhaps the time we were late for our own wedding celebration or the time you gave me my engagement ring.

Those are all cherished moments but the ones that mean the most to me happen on ordinary days like today. This morning at breakfast you told me about a new invention you and Whit are working on. We talked about our next Hand Up project. You read through the morning paper. I planned out my week’s tutoring schedule. And I realized once again why I love you so much. We spend so much of our day-to-day lives doing the ordinary things that sometimes we forget the extraordinary is in the ordinary. In the mechanics of daily life, in the rhythm of morning schedules and evening chores; those are the moments that bind us together, strengthening our relationship so that we can endure in the moments when if feel like our world has shattered. We have overcome monumental obstacles, endured heartache, and celebrated great triumphs, but it’s the simple things that renew my love for you every day.

I think back on our long and tumultuous courtship and I shudder when I realized how close we came to ending it completely. I thank God that I did marry you. He saw fit to unite our hearts and now we have a wonderful ministry together. It ‘s something I didn’t anticipate in our lives before we married, but I see how Hand Up allows us both to use our skills and intelligence together to help others.

I love seeing you do what you love. The smug smile on your face as you reveal your latest breakthrough in a project is priceless. But better still is the look of pure joy when you see how that project has touched the life of another person. If we could measure in dollars the satisfaction your work brings, we would be millionaires.

From the first moment I looked into your periwinkle blue eyes, nearly obscured by your smudged glasses, I knew we had a connection. But I had no idea how much I could grow to love you. Thank you for being a Godly man, for bringing happiness into my life every day, for using your gifts to honor God. I truly love you.

Your affectionate wife,
Katrina

[Catspaw]

Aww, that was incredibly sweet! When I first read the topic title, I thought that it was going to be you writing a love letter to Eugene, not writing it from Katrina. Thanks for sharing this. I can definitely see (or hear!) Katrina writing something like this.

[The Old Judge]

That was fantasmoragical. That's the only world I know how to use besides something like "awesome," "spectacular", "superb", so I went with the above word. One good improvement of Odyssey 2.0 has been the showing scenes of Eugene and Katrina as a married, normal (or not-so-much) couple. When they first tied the knot, they had to book it out of town because of Novacom, then they got back about three years later, only to go on the quest for Leonard and Everett. The Best Small Town contest, and the hiatus shortly thereafter, left little room to show them living normal lives. Now, Album 54 & 55 specifically, has shown us there's more to them than just shared knowledge and a mutual attraction. There is passionate, devoted love between them.

Now all we need is Hand Up back on the show. Thank you for putting that reference in there, Mrs. Jason Whittaker. It was nice to be reminded.