I received 900 notes, letters and postcards, and there are three of them that will always stay with me.
I got a letter from a women in the Deep South who didn't have much. She sent me a $5 bill after telling me how sorry she was and told me to "please go out and have a cup of coffee on me."
Then there was a Jewish man in Los Angeles who told me God had ordained my marriage to Dory. He wrote it in Yiddish and in English.
The third piece of correspondence was from an organization in Iowa that crochets butterflies and angels. I received 30 of them, along with notes from the women who made them. I decorated my Christmas tree with them.
I've given romantic advice to so many young people who were touched by my love story with Dory. (The two had been childhood sweethearts when they were in sixth grade in Tucson together and reconnected as adults after their spouses died.)
I was also touched when my granddaughter took a leave of absence from her job as a flight attendant to move in with me for six weeks.
And without my faith in God, I would have crumbled.
Everybody has been wonderful. It has been very touching. My neighborhood kept me in food for two months.
My injuries healed. But my heart is still broken.
Mavanell "Mavy" Stoddard, 76, was shot three times, leaving five bullet wounds. Her husband, Dorwan "Dory" Stoddard, 76, who used his body to shield her from the bullets, was killed.
