Daughter Receives Trove of Hidden Love Letters Her Parents Exchanged During WWII: They Read Like 'Something from the Movies'

Their short-lived love was more precious than gold.

The great romance between young, handsome New Zealand Army soldier Dan Gower and beautiful London schoolgirl Patricia Evento was revealed in a series of recently discovered love letters dating back to World War II – and has offered their daughter an emotional glimpse of the love story she never witnessed.

Patricia and Dan spent most of their early relationship corresponding through intimate writings as the Army Lieutenant served overseas in the Middle East and in Italy. Eventually, they were married in London in 1944 while Dan was on leave.

"I would give anything to be out there with you, to keep my eyes on you. If I were with you now, Dan, I would rush into your arms and stay there until the war was over," writes Patricia to her "darling Dan" in one letter while he was away, fighting for his country.

When Dan returned home from war in 1945, the couple moved to the small town of Stratford, New Zealand, to raise their three children – living the life they had talked about in their letters.

But the forever-sweethearts' time was tragically cut short when Patricia died from a rare blood disease at the age of 36, leaving Dan to care for their kids – Joy, 13, Suzanne, 10, and Peter, 6.

The letters, discovered by Renae and James List in their Stratford attic, expose the couple's timeless love story by chronicling their relationship through snapshots of their life together – long periods of longing, a surprise engagement, a wedding in London and the birth of a beautiful baby girl.

"You are the nicest fellow in all the world and I love you very, very much. It will be marvelous Dan, when instead of having to write my thoughts, I will have you with me in person," writes Patricia.

When the Lists found the untouched box of 240 letters in January, they used online ancestry sites and the help of local media to track down Patricia and Dan's children – eventually getting in touch with middle child Suzanne Gower, 68.

Gower, who can barely recall her time with her mom, tells PEOPLE the correspondence, "Reads like a beautiful love story, like something from the movies."

"From the start of reading the letters, it was very obvious how much they loved each other. She missed him terribly," she says. "She was so much in love and wanted the war to be over so they could spend their life together and look after him forever."

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In one of the letters, dated September 1942, Gower admits feeling misty-eyed upon the realization that her parents were only able to spend a limited amount of time together before Patricia died.

"My mother had just turned 22 and I couldn't help but think that she was only going to live for 14 more years," Gower, a nurse in Tauranga, New Zealand, says. "And my dad died 20 years after her at the age of 59, when he crashed his Cessna airplane. I'm getting to know them together through these."

Gower says the deep love between her parents is quite evident in the antiqued writings – the daughter's favorite passage comes from Patricia, when she expresses her love for "her soldier."

"I do love you so much Dan and I'm living to see you and be with you again. God bless you darling and keep you safe. Receiving your letters to me is more precious than gold," she writes.

Due to the inconsistency of the postal system during the war, Patricia and Dan numbered their letters so they could keep track of their order as they came in.

"Did you hear Churchill's speech? He seems to think the war in the Middle East may probably end next year, I hope it is this year, but anyway it can't go on very much longer so will continue to wait patiently, or rather impatiently, consoling with the thought of our future," Patricia scrawls in one letter.

Gower, who is still poring over the correspondence, hopes to discover more about Patricia and Dan's romance – the daughter would love to find out how her parents met.

"There are so many mixed emotions reading these and so many questions I have," she says. "But the one thing you can tell is how happy they made each other and it's so lovely. And don't we all want that?"