Dear Hubby of Mine

Touching letters written by a loving couple; musty letters that detail past lives—my parents’ letters. A housewife and her sailor husband with shared immigrant experiences penned more than 500 letters during World War II, and the letters inform this book. Abridged versions of the letters weave a loving romantic story with actual events occurring on the home front and the battlefront.

The 75th anniversary of the end of World War II will be celebrated in 2020. Most of the participants have passed on. While servicemen stories have been broadly told, the tales of the resolute war wives, who had a significant impact on the outcome of the war and the well-being of the country, have not been widely shared. While some women joined the military, and others entered the workforce for the first time, the majority stayed at home to raise children. Dear Hubby of Mine focuses on this latter group of women whose stories have been under-represented and largely uncelebrated in World War II literature. Women charted new roles during the war that led to new freedoms in the years ahead and eventually brought about major societal changes.

A Midwest Book Reviewer noted that Budden’s parents' experiences and love comes to life with hard-earned lessons for others who may be struggling with separation, social change, and the demands of being war wives and husbands committed to both country and each other. Dear Hubby of Mine is not just the story of one husband and wife. It's a snapshot of the experiences of a nation under siege on the battlefields of social change.

A Reader’s Favorite reviewer lauded the excerpts from the hundreds of letters her parents exchanged over the course of World War II combined with interesting historical notes and information. The letters are a fascinating glimpse not just of the war, but also of life in the 1930s and '40s. They’re not love letters in the usual sense, but they are very loving letters that show the ordinary, everyday side of the war.