In 1962, Roz Louie was in her junior year of college at the University of Miami.

One night, she went on a blind date with an aspiring doctor named John.

The date went well.

She and John hid it off.

There was just one problem.

John was in the Air Force and about to ship out to Alaska some 4,000 miles away.

But their connection managed to survive this great distance.

That's because Roz and John got really good at writing back and forth.

There were periods of time when letters were very important and we learned a lot about

each other because we'd only had one date.

At one point, John was sent to a remote island in the illusions called Shemya, pretty close

to Russia.

There was a dentist, a priest, and a doctor on this island.

I think for 500 men doing very secret work and the Jesuit priest said, you know, the

only way you're going to keep your sanity, John, is for you to letter tape.

And that's how we began the letter taping back and forth.

Letter taping.

Meaning, John would record letters on many audio cassettes and then mail them to Roz.

Roz would tape over his letters with her own letters and send the cassettes back.

For Roz, these exchanges with John were proof of how magical the written word could be.

How you could fall in love with someone, their wit, their manner, their whole story, all

through writing.

...