“Alisa Cecilia — The Name She Chose Before I Was Born” — May 21, 1971

The Allgoods: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Love

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In this letter dated May 21, 1971, my mom, Sarah, writes to my dad, Dick, with life-changing news: she’s officially pregnant.

Unlike today, a urine test in 1971 couldn’t confirm pregnancy until a certain amount of time had passed after a missed period. She had to wait. But she already knew. And when she finally could take the test, her neighbor — who worked at the hospital — ran it for her so she didn’t have to wait in line. By 12:30 that afternoon, she had her answer: right on.

And in the middle of all her joy and relief, she names me.

Alisa Cecilia.

That’s the name she writes in this letter — the name she and my dad had already chosen before I ever took a breath.

She even says she might call me Sissy.

And she did — until fourth grade.

Reading this now, I feel the full weight of it:

I wasn’t just wanted. I was known.

Planned.

Named.

Loved.

She talks about baby furniture, catalog shopping for dishes, how sore and growing her body feels, and how much she’s looking forward to being a mother.

She even jokes that if she keeps writing letters this long, Dick will either need glasses or they’ll have to put a cover on them and call it a book.

Well — that’s exactly what I’m doing.

This is only the middle of the first month of letters.

I’m transcribing them one by one and compiling them with scans of the originals — month by month — into a book, just like she imagined.

There’s also something else in this letter.

A quiet reference to an earlier pregnancy:

“If this pregnancy goes like before…”

I didn’t know that.

Maybe it was a miscarriage.

Maybe it was something they never spoke of again.

But now it’s here — between the lines of everything else.

This isn’t just a love story.

It’s the story of how I came to be.

And I feel so deeply honored to have been loved this much

before I ever arrived in the world.

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The Allgoods: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Love is a personal podcast project based on real letters exchanged between Capt. Richard Allgood and Capt. Sarah Allgood during the Vietnam War. Photos of the original letters, family snapshots, and behind-the-scenes commentary are available for supporters.
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