In an age when marriage is often treated as disposable and love letters have been replaced by text messages, Jim McCormick offers us something extraordinary: five decades of devotion, captured one Christmas at a time.
This is not a fairy tale. McCormick doesn’t pretend otherwise. These letters document the friction between two strong personalities, the heartache of a son’s health crisis, the long shadows of depression, and the hard work of choosing to love someone even when it isn’t easy. What emerges is something far more valuable than perfection: authenticity.
McCormick writes with a lawyer’s precision and a poet’s heart. One year he crafts verses; another, he struggles to find words at all. Some letters overflow with romance; others are honest reckonings with his own failings. “I can be a harsh judge at home,” he admits in 1974. And yet, he keeps showing up. He keeps writing.
The final letter, written two months after Marilyn’s death, will leave you undone. It is grief laid bare, but also love in its purest, most distilled form.
This book is for anyone who has ever wondered whether lifelong love is possible. It is. Jim and Marilyn McCormick are proof.
Discover the magic of the season—visit Jim McCormick’s website at www.jimmccormick-author.com to explore his heartwarming book, Fifty Christmases.