The sailor behind the love notes

The mystery sailor behind the love story that has taken the internet by storm has come forward.

The Canadian sailor, Leading Seaman Devin Maxwell, a naval communicator on board the Halifax-class frigate Regina, left a romantic surprise for his wife when he left for an eight month deployment. After sending her flowers, he directed her to a box full of 241 sweet notes–one for her to read each day he is gone. Read more about his romantic surprise here. His wife, Crystal, posted photos of the surprise to online photo-sharing site Imagr. Her post has gotten over 16 million views.

LS Maxwell said that he did not do this for the publicity; rather, he was just looking for a way to make his wife smile. Here’s a few other questions answered by the sailor who’s making Navy wives and women everywhere swoon.

What gave you the idea to do this for your wife?

The idea for the letters was derived from one that involved a jar of jelly beans, one for each day of your absence. I liked the thought of something that would count down the days until I had returned home but felt that jelly beans were not as personable as I wanted to be with my wife. On more than a regular basis she’s gone out of her way to show how much she cares for me, whether it’s creating a masterpiece in the kitchen, or planning a day out for just the two of us. I wanted to do something for her that would really show her exactly how much I appreciate her. My goal was to give her a reason each day to smile

Did you have a hard time coming up with things to write as you got into the higher numbered cards? How did you keep it secret?

It wasn’t as easy as one would think it would be. Coming up with something to say that is different from all the other things I said was proving to be a little challenging. That’s why it took me about 30-40 hours give or take sit down and handwrite them all out. I usually did this during the late hours of the evening when she had gone to bed, but a majority of the letters were produced on my two weeks of pre-deployment leave leading up to the 3rd of July. I would drop her off at work grab a coffee and some breakfast to go, come home and get down to work, sometimes thinking, writing, crafting words together for 4 to 5 hours of the day. (Man did my hand hurt when I was finally done)

 What was her reaction to the surprise?

The day before my departure I had ordered flowers from a local florist that supports the military and in the card that was delivered along with the flowers to her office were instructions to check my closet when she got home. Already having a not so enjoyable day, her boss decided to let her go early. If I know my wife, I’m pretty sure she broke some speeding laws to get home to see exactly what I talking about. I had already set sail and had been on the water now for approximately 4-5 hrs give or take. The first email contact I had received from her was titled “you crafty bastard.” It was enough to bring a tear to my eyes considering our circumstances.

What do you think of the reaction online?

This was never intended to be on the internet and community forums. It was a cute, silly idea I acted upon to give to her. To have something I put a lot of heart and soul into have over 16 million views and touch so many people to remind them that true love does still exist. The explosion this created was something neither one of us ever imagined, and I am grateful for all the positive comments as it has helped my wife deal with my deployment a lot better than I had hoped. I even had to laugh at a few of the comments left by my fellow sex. Some proclaiming their love, and others saying that I just raised to bar to impossible heights