Well, the post office finally delivered a letter to a family – just a tad later than expected. The faded envelope, yellowed from time and with a three-cent stamp reading ‘win the war’ from World War II, was from 1943.
Now, 80 years later, the DeKalb, Ill., post office was determined that it would finally get delivered. Employees noted the letter was addressed to Louis and Lavena George, and through the power of social media, managed to track down the surviving George family members.
They located Grace Salazar, a daughter of the couple and sent her the letter, which she then forwarded to her sister, Jeannette. The paper inside was a note, written in simple cursive, from Louis’ cousin, dated 1943.
An eighty-year-old letter addressed to Louis and Lavena George was finally delivered. Photo provided by the family
The cousin had written to the couple, expressing her sorrow at hearing that they had lost their young daughter, Evelyn, to cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis is a disease that attacks the lungs, leaving them damaged and, back then, leading to death.
“Dear Lavina and Louie, Mother just came and up and told me about your baby’s death. I am terribly sorry. You have had more than your share of grief,” the letter read.
The long-lost letter left the daughters shocked. “A message from the past, seemingly showing up out of nowhere, that’s pretty incredible,” Jeannette said. “Everybody was just like, ‘My God’, you know?’ Gobsmacked. Just like, ‘What is this?’ “
She said that the letter left her “emotional.” “Losing a child is always horrific, [and] it just sort of put me in touch with my parents’ grief and the losses my family went through before I was even born,” Jeannette said. The couple’s granddaughter, Janet, said that even after all this time, were her grandparents still alive, the letter would have been treasured by them.
Jeanette talks about her parents and the letter the post office delivered. Photo by WIFR
“This would have meant so much to grandma and grandpa,” she said. Jeannette and Grace are the only two surviving children of Louis and Lavena. The couple married in 1932 and altogether had eight children, and multiple grandchildren. Louis died in 1986, Lavena in 2012.
As time has passed, Jeannette said that she has learned not to take family for granted. The letter was just another example of that. “As I get older, I appreciate more and more the extended family, especially my nieces and nephews. I just have more of a sense of continuity of life, of families,” she said.
Post office officials said they believe the letter’s delivery was delayed because the address didn’t include a house number, making it undeliverable. Watch below for a look at how this long-lost letter made its way home.
