From Seeing is Believing to Trusting (part one)

In the 1947 Oscar winning film The Best Years of Our Lives, three soldiers are returning home from the war for the first time and find difficulty in readjusting to civilian life. One of the soldiers, a sailor named Homer, has lost both of his arms.He has learned to adapt with his handicap, able to use his hooks for everything from signing his name to lighting his own cigarette.Before he had left for war, Homer had made plans to marry his high school sweetheart,Wilma, once his tour of duty was finished.
And even though his family is well aware of his fatal injuries, Wilma, who lives next door, has not been told yet.Homer is scared of meeting her and wonders what her reaction will be when she finally sees him: will she still love me or reject me?
As the cab drops him off in front of his house, his sister and parents run outside to greet him. Their joy quickly vanishes once they see his disability for the very first time. While greeting one another with hugs and kisses, Wilma comes running out of her home, excited about seeing the soldier she loves. She stands across the lawn for a moment, smiles, then runs up to him and hugs him. Homer is unreceptive to her embrace, standing at attention with fear racing through his mind. Wilma exclaims to him all the right things a woman would tell her soldier coming home from war, "I love you and I missed you, Homer!"
As they all retreat inside the house, Wilma finally notices his missing arms, a look of shear disappointment unravels and then sympathy comes across her face. Once inside, they all have a seat in the living room to get reacquanted. They all seem to ignore his disability, maybe out of respect, as Homer proudly displays his skill of lighting his own cigarette. Their quiet, odd behavior of trying to ignore his limitations, especially Wilma's, brings an unsettled nervousness upon Homer. He rushes out of the house in fear and travels into town to get a drink at his favorite old watering hole.
His first evening in his own bed would be a sleepless night, as his mind would fill up with all kinds of negative thoughts and fears.
During the next few days he would keep his distance from his family and Wilma. Wilma, in return, staying quiet and respectful of his wishes to be left alone.
Then one evening, with his parents in bed, Homer and Wilma finally sit down and talk in the kitchen. She says she still loves him and still wants to get married, but Homer contends with reasons not to, saying she could do better than him. He then gets angry and wants to show her what she would have to go through every night. So he takes her upstairs to his bedroom and shows her his nightly routine. He wiggles off his bathrobe. Each of his hooks are individually strapped to his shoulders, as he wiggles out of each harness. She helps him put on his pajama top and buttons it up for him. Through the whole scene Wilma shows no emotion, totally unfazed by the whole ordeal. She actually comes across as pretty comfortable with the whole routine and declares, "I still love you, Homer!"
For the many times Wilma had said I love you, Homer refused to believe it. He needed to see it to believe it.