A box of letters. A timeless love story. Two people separated by war build an unbreakable bond.

When Anthea C. Stratigos discovered an ornate chinoiserie box owned by her late mother-in-law, Irene, she didn’t realize she had stumbled upon an epic love story. Inside were bundles of letters, tucked in their envelopes and wrapped in ribbons. When she opened and read them, the letters revealed an entire courtship through correspondence between a young Irene and a soldier named Gus—who, after meeting only a few times in person, she would marry.

In 1941, America was reeling after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Gus was quickly dispatched to Hawaii, but on the way there he stopped over in San Francisco, where he met Irene, a beautiful young woman working in her family’s coffee shop. Through their shared Greek heritage and the letters they sent to each other in those early years, they forged a bond that would last for the rest of their lives.

Set against the backdrop of one of the most pivotal times in American history, My Darling Naki is a collection of Gus’s transcribed letters to Irene. From the rain-soaked tropics to the mountains of Tennessee—and from soldier to officer, bachelor to husband—Gus wrote to Irene nearly every week for years.

Read as a collection, the letters reveal a blossoming love and a timeless, tenderhearted story filled with hardship, loss, suspense, and joy—and insight about how two people stayed married for sixty-four years.

We are bombarded with messages to do more, be better, and live a life worth living, but how do we do this in an increasingly complicated and fast-paced world?

This is a question Anthea Stratigos has been asking herself for more than twenty years. And the answers she provides have fostered a way of living and working that’s led to an immensely satisfying result. Through ten guiding principles, her stories share simple changes you can start making today to follow your heart and find your opportunities to thrive.