Love and grief are often inextricably tied together, but for Kaitlin Oster, they’re also powerful tools that have helped her both process immense loss and create something truly compelling.
A lifelong writer, Ms. Oster grew up in Southold and was very close to her grandparents, fellow Southold residents Harold and Loretta Schwerdt. Harold and Loretta met on the playground during the Great Depression and stayed together until her death in 2007. After Loretta’s passing, Ms. Oster was given a box full of letters her grandparents wrote to one another during Mr. Schwerdt’s time as a prisoner of war in World War II. Ms. Oster, as a way of processing her grief and out of sheer fascination — these letters told a remarkable story of love during wartime — transcribed and adapted the letters into a serialized story called “Letters to Loretta,” which was published over 35 weeks on Sandboxx News, a non-partisan military news publication.