I’m fifty thousand words in to my new novel, which is titled: The Last Letter From Your Lover. As part of this book, I am including in the chapter headings examples of real-life Dear John letters – whether sent by text, email or snail mail, some of which are already burning a hole in my research folder.
Over the next few weeks I will be placing small ads in the national press, and on some social networking sites, asking for more examples. These can be anonymised, and as short as two lines (I won’t be able to include more than 100 words of any one).
If you have a Dear John that you want preserved for posterity – whether you be the sender or the recipient, whether it be funny, scabrous, offensive, or tear-jerkingly beautiful, please do email me, or post it here. I can’t pay, but I will credit every sender in the acknowledgments – that’s if they want their name to appear…details can be deleted/altered to protect the innocent.
I will post some on the website prior to publication. A few – like the man who suggested his girlfriend “take a good hard look at all the ways she had proven a disappointment to him”, had me open-mouthed, while others, such as the text which says: “Please stop standing outside my house at night crying. WE ARE OVER and you are bothering my neighbours” had me curling my toes in horror.
Who knows…it may be a little historic, but I may post one of my own…anonymously, of course.
Dear Jojo,
I have just finished your book “The last letter from your lover”. I am still crying! It was given to me by random in our holiday in Cuba last week by an English lady, whom we met and became friends with. She and her boyfriend left earlier than us and she left some books for us to read. For me and my husband.
I am a great believer, that things that are put on our way are meant to be and we are supposed to learn from all our different experiences. Ill get to that point later.
I completely emphasized with both, Mrs Stirling and Ellie. As i met my current husband (sounds weird to say “current husband”) when he was still married, but separated from his wife. I am an Estonian girl and at that time i was very naive and very vulnerable. I think that is why Chris took a shine to me…or he just liked my big boobs! haha.
Anyhow to cut the long story short..we had this whirlwind romance. Lots of letters, confusion, two years apart, me coming back to England to get him, we meet again and four years later we are married at the same day we met. All perfectly happy. Very good friends, 13 years apart in age, he is older than me and he completes me.
However..2 years ago, just before we were supposed to get married, we found out that he has a heart disease and his life expectancy is average, with his condition, 6 years. He is now 44 this year. That has put a huge strain on our relationship. I am a strong woman and have stayed with him all this time, supporting him and accepting that this is just the way our story goes…we will be one of these couples who will never have kids and end up bringing up somebody’s kid..
That was my thought until last February…
…i met someone…by pure fluke really..something sizzled between us and our text messages got so saucy that i actually felt as i was having sex with this other person in my head..i fell in love with him, because he awoke me sexually..huge mistake i know, because my husband is the loveliest and kindest person there is to find in the world.
i have met up with this other man now 2 times, as i am writing this to you, i am seeing him tomorrow. he has cooled away in these past few weeks, but still shows a sign of interest, which intrigues me. I know i have been a complete bitch to my husband also since then. We hardly ever argue, but Mrs Clever here has now asked to have some sort of “reaction” from him, purely because the other man has taken me in to his bed so powerfully and slightly against my will, which is a playful term. Pure sexual lust…and now i am tired of chasing him, i shall finish it tomorrow in my head..he might be the best sex i have ever had, but he will never love me the way my husband has for the past 10 years and will in the future, knowing full well that i have probably slept with someone else…he is just not showing it. He lets me go and do my own thing…and hoping that i will return to him. He knows that i want my own kids and that he can never give them to me…
Tomorrow will be the day when i tell my lover that i fell in love with him (in between we use the terms ” i hate you” he has said that as well, so i thing there are some feelings, but not strong enough to ask me to leave my husband for him, he is 47, quite wealthy and probably thinks i am not compatible with hims. Or is this just my low self esteem talking) and that this will be the last time i will run to him..and if it is meant to be so that i am just a recent one on his list of conquests, then so be it…i choose love and he is not the one who has said the right words.
So, your book has helped my to reach this decision and to choose love..love that has been there always..with no conditions..i have just lost myself a little in the past couple of months. Thank you so much for writing the book and delivering the message. I am trying my hand on a novel myself, so wish me luck!
Yours Sincerely
M.
Dear M.
I hardly know where to begin. I guess your story shows us that love is rarely simple. I hope you find your happiness, and that it comes without too high a price. And I’m very glad you got some comfort from Last Letter.
With all best wishes
Jojo