She never thought her face would be on a book cover.
That a snapshot taken on her honeymoon would become the face of War Bonds: Love Stories From the Greatest Generation. After all, the marriage and the honeymoon might never have happened if Mary Grayhek hadn’t said to heck with vanity, tied a scarf over her hair set in pin curls, and agreed to a blind date.
But at the insistence of her friend, in 1946, Mary agreed to a double date with a handsome Marine. The date with Roy Grayhek changed her life. Six weeks later, they wed in the Naval Chapel in Bremerton, WA.
The photo snapped of Roy and Mary standing on a piece of driftwood in the Puget Sound, became the cover of book filled with stories of people who married during, or shortly after World War Two.
The Grayheks enjoyed 68 years of wedded bliss before Roy’s death in 2014.
Sadly, he passed away before the book’s release. But Mary was able to enjoy seeing their faces on the cover. Even more importantly, she got to see the book in the hands of her great-granddaughter Grace, and her soldier husband, Ryan, shortly before he was deployed.
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Mary Grayhek died December 20, surrounded by her family.
I’m quite confident that Roy was the first one to greet her, and that he hasn’t taken his arm from around her shoulders. And that they picked up their story right where they left off– with happily ever after.
Cindy Hval 
Thank you for your lovely tribute to my dear mother-in-law. It is wonderful to see this photo of my granddaughter Grace and her husband Ryan pictured before his deployment. I attended the reading of War Bonds at Aunties with members of the family and enjoyed visiting with some of the other brides. We purchased copies for all of our grandchildren and they are proud to see their great-grandparents gracing the cover, the pictures inside and their story. We speak of this great generation often to instill their hearts with the importance of the sacrifices made by those who came before us. We live in comfort today because of their hard work, perseverance and determination in those difficult times.