Dear Juliet… Cara Giulietta…  Here are the winning letters of Dear Juliet Award – Verona, Juliet House, February 10th, 2017

 

Dear Juliet,
I thank you for reading this first and foremost as I know you have many who write you. I seek your support or wisdom as both have seemed scarce these days.
It has been many years searching for my Juliet and while there have been infatuations and women I’ve tried to woo, I’ve yet to find the one destined for me. I have a decent job for this economy and I live in the good side of town in a nice apartment. I have two college degrees, no criminal past, no children, and I work very hard to provide the kind of home I want for my family.
For all my life, the biggest fear I’ve had is living a solitary life, serving others but living ultimately alone. I recently saw the collapse of a “Rosaline” type relationship. Juliet, I held her on such a pedestal. It was just weeks ago that it was brutally and permanently shown that all my time, love and money were mere grains of sands in her shoe.
I’m often told there are always “more fish in the sea” and while that is true, I grow weary of casting the line only to see a bare hook, my attention and gifts nibbled away with nothing to show for it. It is true that you can’t buy love and I don’t believe in the idea.
I just have a karmic view that if you put out enough good and love into the world, it should, at some point, be returned much like the ocean tide ebbs and flows. It doesn’t recede from the shore, never to be seen again.
It is my hope that I find my Juliet or she finds me soon. While may people dream of fame, fortune or power, I just want to be completed in a way finding my true love can. I don’t want to be that half finished painting that people can only guess what could’ve been. To me, even the little things would seem like a gift. Her makeup on the sink, her sleeping in the bed I made, under the roof I’ve worked so hard to provide. But they would all be signs of us building a life together.
Marriage is work I know and no relationship is without conflict, but Juliet, even a lover’s quarrel can be more inviting than deafening silence.
In the age of fleeting relationships, social media and the like, I hope you can give this old soul some advice or encouragement. I pray that in all your correspondence, you have still seen a place for guys like me; ones that don’t see women as merely a feast for the eyes or conquest, but as needed and the most valuable piece to a happy life.
I hope you have time to write me back and this letter finds you in good health. As you can see, I tend to be long winded, but I’ve been told that I think deeply, love deeply and therefore hurt just as deeply.
Hopefully, this hurt will soon be replaced with joy and the slightest touch of my love’s hand can begin to heal these scars.
Italy is such a magical place and I pray some of that makes its way back across the ocean, bringing hope that my Juliet is looking at these same stars, wondering where I am. Thank you again for reading this letter and I appreciate any advice, experience or even kind words you can give this 33-year old old romantic.
May God always bless you and that whoever reads this find their true love and happiness.
Sincerely, Gary   (Gary Hinterlong, Texas, USA)
Good Afternoon Ladies,
I am not writing to you for love advice or answer to a question I have about love both how it makes you feel but the pain it also brings when things go wrong.
Life is a journey of ups and downs and the path to happiness is littered with back streets and dead ends and i have been down a few of these in my life. I have finally found the person I believe to be the REAL one and this is my story.
After being previously married to someone who didn’t appreciate what I did among other things. I decided that the next girl I dated and had a relationship with was going to be everything I ever wanted. I wasn’t going to settle for 2nd best.
I met Nicola in almost a year ago in 2015 after being seperated a number of months she came up on my profile on match.com (a dating website) and was mesmerized and intrigued by her beauty and smile. I built up the courage to send her a message after looking at her profile a few times which unknowingly to both of us showed each other every time we viewed each others profile and I gave her my number, hoping get to know her better. We talked for a week or so until she agreed to let me take her out to dinner. At the time I lived in the West Midlands and we met in Derby for a proposed drink and movie it turned into a 6 hour date of talking ,laughing, drinking and a meal.
After I walked her back to her car via mine to collect the flowers I got her. I remember thinking in my head, “This is my dream girl. This is the person I want to travel with, grow old with and do that cheesy couple stuff with” The day she agreed to be my girlfriend was probably the second happiest day of my life. I say second happiest because I’m saving the best day of my life for when she says yes to being my wife or becomes the mother to my children.
I’m addicted to making her happy. That means fully participating in movie marathon nights, cooking for her and her friends and spending time just chilling in each others arms.
We have two dogs both mine which Nic took on without any hesitation, keeps a box of our memories, and she often robs my star wars lounge pants to relax in.
The real power of any man is the size of the smile of the woman sitting next to him and I plan to spend the rest of my life making her cheeks hurt. Being able to call her mine everyday is my motivation to work hard.
I cannot wait to make her my wife and become parents.
Life has never been better we are nearly 12 months into our book of life and have lots more adventures and memories to fill those blank pages with.
I am planning to propose in Venice in September on her birthday (Sept 27th) and are due to visit Verona on Sept 28th.
I am sure you offer great advice but i wanted to share my story and even in the darkest days when i was alone there was always a light shining in the distance into which Nic walked and on that day i began to live again.
Thank you, Andrew    (Andrew Alden, England)

Cara Giulietta,
una volta il regista Louis Malle affermò l’esistenza di un filo rosso capace di unire chi non si è mai conosciuto.
Il suo concetto si fondava sulla piena convinzione che vi fosse un semplice filo capace di legarci a qualcuno che forse incontreremo domani. Un filo rosso che guida e incrocia i destini e ci porta ad amare a prima vista lo sconosciuto che è nella nostra vita da sempre. Ma sai, Giulietta, io non ci credo tanto.
Purtroppo penso di essere nata da un amore sbagliato, da un amore senza amore. Sono nata da un sentimento di due ragazzi ormai non più tanto giovani, che, nonostante io li abbia avuti accanto per vent’anni, non stati capaci di darmi amore, solo guai!
Come se non bastasse non ho mai avuto la fortuna di amare ed essere amata da qualcuno.
Cara Giulietta, tu credi che l’amore esista davvero per tutti? Credi che esista davvero quel “filo rosso” di cui parlava tanto Louis Malle?
Sai Giulietta quando vengo nella tua adorata Verona mi sento davvero a casa. Ogni volta che ho un po’ di tempo libero, il mio desiderio è quello di partire subito per la tua città. Verona la porto nel cuore, non so neanche io perché.
È come se sentissi un legame, un filo, ma questa volta non “rosso”, più sul “verde speranza”…. È come se il mio sesto senso mi dicesse che Verona farà parte della mia vita. Ti è mai capitato di avere un sentimento/presentimento del genere?
Dolce Giulietta, l’intento della mia lettera non è quello di raccontarti della mia storia d’amore inesistente, come tu avrai ben capito… Purtroppo non ho l’attitudine ad amare e all’esser e amata. Solitamente mi sento come un libro aperto circondata da analfabeti.
Non esiste nessuno più difficile di chi sa stare da solo. Il solitario ha imparato a fare la cosa che fa più paura al mondo. E non sarà mai disposto a barattare la sua solitudine con rapporti di circostanza, né con persone che cercano compagnia solo perché hanno paura del vuoto. Io Giulietta sono così, ahimè.
E ti dirò di più, non mi dispiace neanche esserlo! Esiste una sottile paura della libertà, per cui tutti vogliono essere schiavi. Naturalmente, tutti parlano della libertà, ma nessuno ha il coraggio di essere davvero libero, perché quando sei davvero libero, sei solo. E solo se hai coraggio di essere solo puoi essere libero. Così disse Osho.
Ora Giulietta ti chiedo: credi che anche io possa trovare l’amore della mia vita? Magari una persona che la pensi come me?
Sai, non hai mai davvero funzionato con nessuno perché non ho mai trovato un uomo che la pensasse come me. Ogni notte però sogno che la persona capace di completarmi esista davvero, ma ogni volta che mi sveglio quel filo rosso non mi raggiunge mai. Non so se tu potrai aiutarmi Giulietta, ma chi meglio di te può darmi un consiglio?
Chi meglio di te può infondermi fiducia nell’amore, che il mondo dei social di oggi ha quasi distrutto e minimizzato?
Chi meglio di te può spiegare perché Verona mi è così nel cuore?
Sperando in una tua risposta, ti mando un forte abbraccio.
Kemi    (Kemi Adebayo, Milano, Italia)