To this day I remember my mums letters. It all started in December 1941.
至今我依然记得母亲的信。事情要从1941年12月说起。
Every night she sat at the big table in the kitchen and wrote to my brother Johnny, who had been drafted that summer.
母亲每晚都坐在厨房的大饭桌旁边，给我弟弟约翰写信。那年夏天约翰应征入伍。
We had not heard from him since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
自从日本袭击珍珠港以后，他就一直杳无音信。
I didn't understand why my mum kept writing Johnny when he never wrote back.
约翰从未回信，我不明白母亲为何还要坚持写下去。
Wait and see—well get a letter from him one day, she claimed.
可母亲还是坚持说：等着瞧吧，总有一天他会给我们回信的。
I don't know if she said that to calm herself, dad or all of us down.
虽然我不肯定她是否只是在安慰自己，或是父亲，或者是我们几个孩子，
But I do know that it helped us stick together, and one day a letter really did arrive.
但我们一家人却因此更加亲密。而最终我们终于等到了约翰的回信，