Veteran's Heartfelt Ad Seeks Long-lost Woman in the Teal Gown

A Boston soldier, fresh back from dropping bombs over Hanoi, Vietnam, was so wracked with guilt that he was resolved to turn his Smith & Wesson on himself to end the grief he felt over the unknown number of lives his bombs had ended.

Before ending it all that New Year’s Eve in 1972, the then young man decided to take one more stroll through his beloved Boston, wandering through the Fenway, Boston Common and up Beacon Hill as a steady rain turned into a downpour. As the man passed by the Old State House contemplating the suicide he planned later that night, everything changed.

“And then I saw you,” the man wrote in the Boston Craigslist Missed Connections section. “You’d taken shelter under the balcony of the Old State House. You were wearing a teal ball gown, which appeared to me both regal and ridiculous. Your brown hair was matted to the right side of your face, and a galaxy of freckles dusted your shoulders. I’d never seen anything so beautiful.”

The pair spent what the unnamed soldier described as a magical evening together, sipping coffee at Neisner’s. She told him of her upcoming wedding to a man she didn’t love; he told her about his life, sharing his feelings and secrets, except the fresh wounds incurred in Vietnam.

“After an hour or so, I excused myself to use the restroom. I remember consulting my reflection in the mirror. Wondering if I should kiss you, if I should tell you what I’d done from the cockpit of that bomber a week before, if I should return to the Smith & Wesson that waited for me,” the man wrote. “I decided, ultimately, that I was unworthy of the resuscitation this stranger in the teal ball gown had given me, and to turn my back on such sweet serendipity would be the real disgrace.”

But when he got back to the counter, the beautiful stranger in the teal gown was gone, never to be seen again.

“I’m an old man now, and only recently did I recount this story to someone for the first time, a friend from the VFW. He suggested I look for you on Facebook,” the post reads. “I told him I didn’t know anything about Facebook, and all I knew about you was your first name and that you had lived in Boston once. And even if by some miracle I happened upon your profile, I’m not sure I would recognize you. Time is cruel that way.”

The soldier’s friend’s daughter turned the soldier toward Craigslist to find the long-lost woman who inspired him to carry on and live a life that included a long marriage, a son, and self-forgiveness. Unfortunately, the soldier’s wife and son have passed away, and he finds himself alone once again, seeking the long-lost woman in the teal gown that inspired him so much.

“As I cast this virtual coin into the wishing well of the cosmos, it occurs to me, after a million what-ifs and a lifetime of lost sleep, that our connection wasn’t missed at all,” the man writes. “So wherever you’ve been, wherever you are, and wherever you’re going, know this: you’re with me still.”

Patch has reached out to the Boston soldier seeking more on his story and whether his craigslist post has shown any success. Read the full craigslist post here.