About the book

Even Then, I Loved You is a poetry collection first written and collected nearly a century ago. It belonged to a woman named Alberta Desiree Berton, affectionately known as “Bert”— a deeply reflective, poetic voice whose life left few public records but whose writing endured.
I discovered the book while going through my Aunt Bill’s home, a house she had shared with Bert. What I found was more than leath-bound book — it was a quiet, aching chronicle of longing, secrecy, and resilience, written at a time when queer love and self-expression had to remain hidden.
These poems are not about Aunt Bill and Bert specifically — but their lives intertwined in a way that led this book to be preserved. This is a tribute to Bert’s voice and the time she lived through.
This is not a biography — it's a preservation.