Photo by Zachary Siebert / St. Joseph News-Press

From left are Jenny, 14-month-old Brody, and Mark Cathcart at their home in St. Joseph. Having only met once before Mark was deployed to Iraq, the couple fell in love through letters during the 14 months that Mark was in Iraq. Two days after his return in May 2004, they started dating. It has been bliss ever since.

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Sgt. Mark Cathcart would be out for five days at a time — searching for Iraqi civilians, keeping guard, sleeping on top of his truck.

Without fail, a couple of Jenny Kerns’ letters greeted him when he returned to his Army Reserves bunk.

One of the soldiers in his squad would say, “You’re gonna go home and marry that girl.”

Mr. Cathcart would reply, “No, she’s just one of my mom’s friends and is writing to keep me company.”

That soldier was right.

A few days after Mr. Cathcart returned from Iraq in May 2004, he and Jenny started dating. A year and a half later, the St. Joseph couple married. Today, the 31-year-olds have a 14-month-old son, Brody.

In a time of war, Jenny and Mark Cathcart found love.

Jenny and Mark didn’t think much of each other the one time they met prior to Mark’s 14 months in Iraq.

Their parents knew each other and had wanted the two to meet. In 2002, they met without incident once when their families got together.

Before Mark left for Iraq, his mother, Linda Snodderly, told Jenny about his deployment.

Jenny, who’d always kept a journal, decided to write Mark as a nice gesture.

She’d write about her daily life — her job, her house, her cat Mailee.

“Other people would write and say how much they missed me and ask when I was coming home, which could make me sad. I didn’t like thinking about those things. I liked that Jenny was just writing about what she was doing,” Mark said.

Jenny wrote about twice a week. When he could, Mark wrote back, telling her about his life at war.

When Mark came back, Jenny rode with Mark’s parents and her parents to meet him in Fort Riley, Kan. Jenny made a 4-foot welcome home banner for her pen pal.

In a sea of 350 soldiers in camouflage, Jenny spotted Mark. She ran up to him and gave him a big hug.

“Then I realized that I had cut in front of his mom. So I stepped back so she could hug him,” Jenny said, laughing.

That evening, they hung out together with their families.

Since they had learned so much about each other through letters, they felt comfortable around each other, like each already knew everything about the other.

After that night, they both had the same thought: I want to date this person.

Each planned to call the other within the next few days.

Jenny beat Mark to the chase. She called him first.

“He came over to my house and basically hasn’t left since,” Jenny said.

Editor’s note: ‘Ever After’ is a monthly feature that tells the tale of how people met and fell in love.

Nancy Hull can be reached

at nancyhull@npgco.com