When the Letter Walked Through the Door

For fourteen months, the Reyes family in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, lived on letters. Staff Sergeant Marco Reyes wrote home every week from his deployment — pages filled with his humor, his longing, his love for his three daughters. The girls memorized his phrases. They read his words at breakfast. His youngest, Sofia, slept with his letters under her pillow, pressing the paper to her cheek as if she could feel his warmth through the ink.…