When World War II was raging thousands of miles away, a young couple from Brooklyn embarked on a remarkable daily correspondence. From more than 2,000 letters between, Lenny and Diana Miller, first generation American Jews, emerged a conversation, often separated by weeks: her work as a machinist and union organizer at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and as a new mother while he trained in Southern Mississippi and fought in some of the most dangerous battles overseas in Europe. It is "the story of the triumphs and sacrifices, of ordinary people, in an extraordinary time."


We Are Going to Be Lucky tells the story of a first-generation Jewish American couple separated by war, captured in their own words. Lenny and Diana Miller were married just one year before America entered World War II and Lenny was sent off to train and fight. Deeply committed to social justice, and bonded to one another by love, both vowed to write to one another daily. As Lenny made his way through basic training in Mississippi to the beaches of Normandy and eventually to the Battle of the Bulge, Diana struggled financially, giving up her job as a machinist to become a mother. The couple’s extraordinary letters, preserved in their entirety, reveal and reflect the excruciating personal sacrifices endured by both soldiers at war and their young families back home. After decades of gathering dust, the couples’ words have been carefully transcribed and thoughtfully edited and annotated by Elizabeth L. Fox, Lenny and Diana’s daughter.