A Soldier's Tale | A Love Story
A Soldier’s Tale is based on the letters of Frank Bernard Morrell (FBM) to his sweetheart, Alice Graham Price (AGP) during his year of service in World War I. A 24-year-old real-estate agent, he was drafted into the U.S. Army on May 26, 1918.
We follow him from the streets of Brooklyn to the barracks of Camp Upton, across the Atlantic with the 79th Division, and finally to the shattered streets of Verdun on Armistice day.
What begins as a young man’s reluctant step into the Great War becomes a tender chronicle of love, ordinary courage, and quiet determination to return home—culminating in a marriage that lasted more than half a century.
Verdun, November 1918
Lessons from Wartime
1 / Love is a steadying force in chaos
FBM and AGP’s constant letters, packages of soap, cigarettes, sweaters, and small comforts kept both of them grounded. Even when mail was delayed by the logistics of bringing a million men home, their correspondence never stopped reminding each other that ordinary life—and a shared future—still waited.
2 / Ordinary people carry extraordinary weight Frank was not a career soldier. He had poor eyesight, hoped to stay stateside, and worried about his mother and his job. Yet like millions of others, he simply showed up, endured inoculations, drills, and the long wait in France, and did what was asked of him without fanfare.
3 / Small acts of care matter more than grand gestures AGP’s prompt replies and carefully packed boxes, the Red Cross women offering coffee and candy at train stations, the “welcome home” signs prepared by family—these everyday kindnesses sustained morale far more than official speeches.
4 / Hope is practical, not naïve From the first night at Camp Upton, Frank wrote of missing Alice while still planning their reunion. Even after the Armistice, their letters turned to rents, jobs, and apartment hunting in Brooklyn. They treated the future as something to be built, not merely dreamed about.
5 / War ends, but the story continues The real victory was not only the signing of the Armistice but the quiet return to civilian life: a wedding,
a successful career, and an 80th-birthday celebration still side-by-side more than fifty years later.
In the end, A Soldier’s Tale reminds us that history is made of individual hearts that keep beating—writing letters, packing soap, counting the days—until they can finally come home to each other.
