Sunday, September 26, 1943
Brightest Part
A pensive, somewhat shakenJFK wrote a letter to old girlfriend Inga Arvad telling her she had been the brightest part of his life to date,
Inga-Binga,
I’ll be glad to see you again. I’m tired now because we are riding every night and sleeping is tough in the daytime but I’ve been told they are sending some of us home to form a new squadron in a couple of months. I’ve had a great time here, everything considered, but I’ll be just as glad to get away for a little while. I used to have a feeling that no matter what happened I’d live through. It’s a funny thing that as long as you have that feeling you seem to get through. I’ve lost that feeling lately. As a matter of fact, I don’t feel badly about it. If anything happens to me I have this knowledge that if I live to 100 I could only improve the quantity of my life, not the quality. This sounds gloomy as hell but you are the only person I’d say it to anyway. As a matter of fact, knowing you has been the brightest part of an extremely bright 26 years…
[153, p.324]