The central characters of Good Night… Whispers of the Heart are Jack and Joan. Jack is a career human relations manager for a large soft goods corporation, a manufacturer of casual wear, sportswear, and seasonal outwear for every climate. Jack has had a successful career extending to his last decade of full-time employment.
Jack’s physically active lifestyle is compatible with wearing the clothes and engaging in sports that his company promotes. Life has been good for Jack even with the inevitable illnesses, falls, and minor accidents.
The best decision that Jack ever made was marrying Joan. In recent years, he has often wondered what she sees in him. Their relationship has grown in a mutually beneficial, comfortable give-and-take routine. He sees himself as the luckiest guy in the world. Without question, he never wanted to doubt her reasons for saying “yes” when he proposed. Like his father who was rescued by his mother many years ago, Joan has rescued him to lead a life of fulfillment in work and family.
Jack saw to it that Joan had everything he could afford to make a quality lifestyle for them. They could afford to travel to exciting landmarks, both domestic and abroad. Jack was ever mindful of the early days of marriage when they didn’t have two nickels to rub together. As he grew into manhood, his astute financial planning finally paid off — the skills learned from his father.
His father’s frugality and ingenuity combined to lead to an unexpected surprise: his father’s and mother’s bedtime notes. Having acquired land and invested in bonds and annuities, his father managed the family finances to the extent that Jack was left to manage a sizable estate. However, the valuable estate was to have another dimension: a treasure of notes stashed away in a bedside drawer, notes from his father to his mother, many written on scraps of paper, with messages filled with love and appreciation.
Then, in his father’s wisdom, he had left the key inserted in the drawer, as his wish for his son’s discovery. Here were countless bedtime stories written decades ago, but alive with the memory of his parents’ love. As he opened the drawer, Jack was stunned to find a myriad of handwritten notes from his father to his mother. Sweating exuberantly and giggling, Jack pulled out the first faded card at random and read it to Joan.
Joan, as a dedicated high school teacher, had endured more than her share of too hot or too cold classrooms, shortages of materials, recalcitrant students, and long work hours. But she was a model of decorum with an inner strength of purpose and resolve that drew students to her, inspiring confidence. Perhaps it was her work/life demeanor that attracted Jack to her, as friends had surreptitiously arranged their meeting. The friends’ efforts were successful in pairing two soulmates.
Sitting together on the floor of his parents’ bedroom, on a sultry August day, the two were caught up in the significance of the stacks of notes found in his parents’ bedside table. The tone was simple, “I love you! I would do anything for you. I will always be by your side.” Some notes were intimate and made them blush; others expressed comfort for a problem they shared, or a disappointment that made them frown.
The job of cleaning out the family home was not over, but the discovery of love notes and/or bedtime stories would make the daunting task much easier, and the memories of his parents more vivid. Months later, in probate with lawyers and financial advisors, the real meaning of marriage and family was overshadowed by the financial aspects of the security his father had secured for his family. Jack renewed his vow to live as a husband with special attention to details about the truly important qualities of an individual and his/her relationship to others. He silently pledged to learn new lessons from his father about life and marriage.
Trying to recall overheard conversations between his parents, he concluded that they were true friends, discussing matters before making decisions, allowing for differences in opinion. Somehow, he had not thought of his parents’ relationship in that light.
Now, thirty years later, Jack was sure he sounded like his dad when he and Joan were discussing difficult topics. His dad had a smooth baritone voice and knew how to use it to his advantage. Jack had consistently tried to emulate his father’s vocal range and his father’s wisdom as well, but never quite succeeded.
However, one thing he could do was learn to write like his dad so he could write bedtime stories for Joan — all in Jack’s own voice. One memorable moment from Jack’s college graduation (when he was too young to appreciate the advice) was his father’s quiet over-the-shoulder whisper, “Jack, give people a good day’s work. Make yourself a good hand. And remember to write to your mother —often.”
His parent’s bedside table had finally been moved to Jack’s home office, where it served several purposes. On a snow day filled with cancellations and limited travel, Jack and Joan planned their day around reading notes from the drawer. Jack began with a vow not to read each note. He wanted to bring some systemic flow, if that was possible, to this intriguing mound of papers, full of sensitive emotions, stuffed in the drawer. This treasure chest had taken decades to fill. It would be bad karma to read it too fast.
As he summoned the courage to pick up the first folded note, Jack remembered a Kenny Rogers song, The Gambler, “only do the countin’ when the dealings done.” Humming as he sorted, shifted, and stacked the cards and scraps of paper according to size, Jack wondered out loud about his father’s personality and penchant for writing on any available paper, even Christmas wrapping paper.
Just for the heck of it, Jack reached into the bottom of the drawer, to find the bottom. He recalled the nursery rhyme about a Little Jack Horner and said, “I am going to reach in and pull out a plum.” Boy, did he ever! An envelope with his name on it!
Opening the envelope, Jack said out loud to no one, “This was written on mother’s stationary” - denoting that this letter had been carefully planned. Settling into his office chair, Jack began to read:
” Jack, I have written the last bedtime story for your mother; her memory is failing, and, among many forgetful moments, she is losing the notes. By now, you have seen the private stories of your mother and me. We have been given much but having you for a son is the greatest gift of all. Now my request to you… Pick up the pen and write bedtime stories for Joan, a gift that keeps on giving, as you can see in this drawer. Take the hint! Love, Dad”
The snow had given way to a sunny sky with a bright hope for his future endeavors. He would allow a lapse of time to adapt his father's style of daily communication to his own style, with the one he loved clearly in mind. He had to embrace note writing as his own expression to Joan.
On an ordinary spring evening after a walk through the neighborhood, Joan went to bed earlier than Jack, and there on her pillow was a note. “How nice,” she thought, burrowing a little deeper under the cover, she read her first bedtime story. She almost missed the last line at the bottom of the page, just before she turned off the bedside lamp.
Good Night...Whispers of the Heart.
Here are examples of love notes - bedtime stories - by Jack to Joan, each with a Preface to explain the origin of the bedtime story.
Jack’s wife, a retired English teacher, likes fairy tales. Jack plays to her literary pleasures.
In a time long ago and in a land far away, lived a King and Queen. She was the ruler of the kingdom; he was a reluctant lord. One day, a traveler came to the kingdom and took notice; and so did the Queen. Moment by circumstance, the Queen found a new hope: the kingdom, a new day. In quiet hours, peace and rest joined hands and bodies for the n