BEDFORD (WSLS 10) - "All ways yours, Otha" is how Army Corporal Otha Eubank ended every letter sent home to his wife Ada.
He served in Europe during World War II, being deployed in August 1944.
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"You don't know when you'll get another (letter)," Ada recalls. "That's what blows your mind. It hurts not knowing."
The young couple married in August 1943, two months after Ada, then 17-years-old, graduated from high school. Otha had been drafted and would soon go to basic training in South Carolina.
Ada was visiting her husband on June 6, 1944 - D-Day - when more than 6,600 Americans were killed storming the beaches of Normandy. Among them were 19 soldiers from Bedford known as the Bedford Boys.
"It was terrible. I went to school with some of them," Ada said. "They were the nicest group of men, just good people. It was heartbreaking."
Then came the reality. Otha would soon be deploying to Europe in August.
"I didn't know whether I would ever see him again. It's really hard to take," Ada remembers. "Then they went over and they weren't over there very long until they got into war, fighting, and then he got captured."
Otha was fighting near the border of France and German when his company was captured by the Nazis. He was taken to a prison camp near Berlin.
Ada learned her husband's fate from a typed generic letter saying he was a prisoner of war. Otha's name was printed at the bottom. Shortly after, the United States government sent her two telegrams. One saying Otha was missing in action and later that he was a prisoner of war.
"That hurt the worst because you didn't know how they were treated him," Ada said about learning he was captured. "You heard so many horror tales."
With weeks, sometimes months between letters, Ada was left to wonder the condition of her husband. But she never lost hope.
"While I was just heartbroken, there was something there that kind of calmed me," she said. "I could feel it. Until I got something saying he was dead I would not believe it."
It's a feeling paid off.
On May, 8 1945, after six months in a German prison camp, the war ended and Otha was free. After spending several weeks in a hospital and a brief stint at a base in California, Otha was honorably discharged. He immediately went home to Bedford to see his wife.
"It was wonderful," Ada remembers. "It's something you can't hardly explain."
They spent the next 40 years together until 1985, when Otha died of a heart attack. Ada turned his wedding ring into a necklace that she wears daily.
70 years after World War II came to an end, she spends much of her time teaching others. Now 89-years-old, Ada works at the Bedford Welcome Center six days per week, telling others about the war that changed so many lives.
"All of the young people should really remember. They should be taught that," she said. "Just like I taught my great grandchildren and they know about their great grand-daddy."
It's a memory she hopes will stay alive long after she's gone.