TOTTENVILLE - Scholars, philosophers, poets and countless laymen have tried to define the same word since the dawn of time, but to no avail.

The only thing for certain about love - true love, that is - is that it is born surreal, living on as a transcendental force able to survive the darkest of days during the most protracted of periods.Leonard William Dooren knew that much.

"Sometime while ashore, I pass a couple seated in a car, bench or just strolling," he wrote in well-trained, methodical cursive on May 26, 1940. "And I can't resist a condescending smile, merging almost to a sense of contempt. So help me, I feel so superior - they don't know what love is, not as I know it."

Yet, some renowned water-going wordsmith Dooren was not.

A U.S. Navy engineer stationed aboard the USS New Orleans during World War II, he was more a fighter than a lover, surviving 17 battles during his tour.

But despite his hellish surroundings and the fear of imminent attack, Dooren could not shake the grip that love had on him.

On that late spring Sunday, he mailed a letter expressing those sentiments.

STIRRED EMOTIONS

A lifetime later, his straightforward, passionate words still have the power to touch those with the hardest of hearts and bring a tear to the eyes of those more tender.

This past June, Tottenville resident Lorraine Alweiss proved to be a member of the latter group.

Looking through ephemera on the Internet, she was searching for a gift for her daughter, Veronica, who now resides in California.

The two were set to take a trip to Hawaii, and Mrs. Alweiss wanted to bring her something special. So, she put in a search for New Orleans, a location both mother and daughter adored.

The eBay search came back with an interesting looking letter sent from the ship bearing the Louisiana city's name. It was postmarked in Pearl Harbor, though.

"I saw that it was sent from Hawaii and was addressed to a woman in New York," said Mrs. Alweiss. " I thought to myself that this seemed too (coincidental), so I bought it."

And for $3, the retired school secretary found herself a love story that rivaled any blockbuster novel or film.

The perfectly preserved letter was addressed to Mrs. Edna J. Houghton Van Wert at her Manhattan home.

(In an interesting twist, Mrs. Van Wert was actually born and raised in West Brighton and is buried in the Houghton family plot in Fairview Cemetery in Castleton Corners.)

The four-page letter, from a homesick sailor, begins simply enough, but very quickly becomes an impassioned entreaty.

It was not to his mother that Dooren was writing, but rather to the mother of a girl named Dolly, with whom he had fallen in love with while on leave six months earlier.

He admitted to sitting up at night "dreaming dreams" of Mrs. Van Wert's daughter and wanting "to do everything in (his) power to make Dolly happy."

The shocker came on page three: Dooren, after detailing his love, admits that he has sold his car and purchased a platinum wedding ring.

The letter ends with a cliff-hanging allusion to an impending visit by Dolly to the base at Pearl Harbor.

"I immediately connected with the spirit of the letter," said Mrs. Alweiss. "I felt truly compelled to see how the love story of Len and Dolly evolved. Did Len survive the war? Did they marry? Did they have children?"

It became a quest for information, fueled by love.

Military archives requests, Internet searches and phone calls produced vague results at first, but eventually, Mrs. Alweiss located a Len and Dolly Dooren living in East Greenbush, N.Y.

"I thought at first it might be a son, or grandson even," she admitted. "However, their ages were listed as 92! I realized that not only had I located some information on the young lovers, but had actually found them both alive and well."

A SPECIAL REUNION



On the morning of July 20, Mrs. Alweiss contacted the Doorens by phone, told her tale - much to the disbelief of Mrs. Dooren - and agreed to take a trip upstate to reunite the aging lovers with the letter.

"They couldn't have been sweeter or more excited," she said of her in-person meeting three days later.

As it turns out a few short weeks after the letter was mailed, Dolly took a train cross country to San Francisco, jumped a boat to Hawaii and gave an emphatic "Yes" when Dooren dropped to one knee.

The couple was wed in a judge's chambers in Honolulu on June 17, 1940.

Dooren survived the remainder of his battles, including the fateful bombing of Pearl Harbor, and eventually made his way home with his new bride.

Today, they have five children, six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren and are just as in love as the day they met.

"It was adventure from start to finish," said Mrs. Alweiss of her month-long experience. "Eventually returning the letter where it belonged was truly amazing."

In addition to excessive amounts of gratitude for her efforts, she received high praise from the Doorens' daughter, who told her that she had "enriched the lives of her parents and lives of their family."

As stories like this go, however, the giver tends to walk away with something almost as invaluable.

"They can say that all they want," said Mrs. Alweiss, who already has an invitation to the couple's 70th anniversary party next year. "But the fact of the matter is, they enriched my life."