Even if it took 80 years, no rain, snow, sleet, or hail could prevent this letter from being delivered.
Written in 1943 to Lewis and Ravena George of DeKalb, Illinois, the letter was lost in the mail for decades until a conscientious local postal worker finally found it. It was lost in the mail until I made it my mission to make sure it was delivered.
The anonymous postal hero seeks out the only surviving embers of the George family, their two daughters, and retrieves the letter.
“Messages from the past seem to come out of nowhere,” says George's younger daughter, Janet. told WIFR-TV News. That's pretty incredible. Everyone said, “Oh my god!” You know? Gobsmacked.
The letter was first delivered to one of her surviving daughters, Grace Salazar, who recently moved to Oregon and later shared the letter with her sister, the paper said.
Their parents, who were married in 1932, have now passed away, but their letters provide a glimpse into their lives.
It was written by a cousin of the couple to express their condolences over the recent loss of their other daughter, Evelyn, who had cystic fibrosis.
“I got emotional about it,” Janet told WIFR. “I mean, losing a child is always scary. It touched on the grief of my parents and the loss that my family experienced before I was born.
“The older I get, the more I appreciate my extended family, especially my nieces and nephews,” she added. “I feel more continuity in life and family.”
DeKalb Post Office officials believe the delay in delivery was because the mailing address did not include the house number on South Sixth Street.
