A 96-year-old man got the surprise of his life, when he finally got a letter that was penned by his wife, who died six years earlier. Getting a love letter from the living is rare, getting it from the love of your life after she’s passed is like a miracle in itself, but that’s exactly what happened. It wasn’t just a shock to the retired Navy soldier, but also his daughter who was not expecting a letter from her mother to arrive on Mother’s Day Sunday no less. It’s the kind of story that will warm your heart today of all days, being Memorial Day and all.They were very much in love, but the letter was penned during a time of war, which often kept these two love birds apart.
It had somehow fallen under the gap under the stairs and had remained lost for decades. It was also postmarked May 1945, and was supposed to reach Rolf, but it never got there.
At first, she didn’t know what it was, but once she took a close look, she noticed that the paper peaking under her staircase was an old love letter from another time.
In it, Rolf’s wife, Virginia wrote about just how much she admired her husband and how she longed to be with him again.
Virginia wrote, “that is what you are to my life, the sun about which everything revolves around me. I love you, Rolf, as I love the warm sun.”
It was all so sweet, but the envelope was unfortunately marked “return to sender”, and Rolf never got it.
Sadly, however, Virginia was no longer alive, so it was his son who ended up reading his mother’s letter to his dad.
Rolf had been alone with the memory of his wife for the last six years, and suddenly, she found her way back to him in a way.
So she became the ultimate online sleuth and went looking for the Christoffersens to hand the letter back to its intended owner if he was still alive or one of his children.
That must have been a wonderful way for the couple’s son to remember his mom by reading what she had to say about his dad. He added, “It’s Mother’s Day and reading her words reminded me just what a wonderful person she was and how much she loved us.”
You could say it was part of a beautiful, and heartwarming lost treasure that you could never put a price on. Melissa’s father, Allen Cook, who had also been present when the letter was found felt that the narrative in the letter “could be straight out of a great movie plot about love and its mysterious ways.”
She had apparently googled his father’s name, but since he was named after his dad, she found him instead. So after a few questions, mainly pertaining to where he grew up, she told him about the letter.
After 72 years, Rolf finally got to hear his wife’s unspoken words. “I was so surprised after all these years. I was very happy to find out that a letter like that existed. I am still very emotional,” Rolf added.
“It was really sweet to see that long-distance love. You didn’t have texting, you didn’t have email,” she said.
Rolf’s son claims that the letter was very personal but sweet and loving at the same time. He added that “the words were so characteristic of my mom, this was her, this is so much my mom.”
It’s funny how this letter, which was meant for the Navy sailor during World War II fell through the cracks, literally. Perhaps it was destined to reach him years later to remind him of the love he shared with Virginia.
But the family moved from New Jersey to California in 1959, and all of her love letters were lost during the move. To have this letter end up in the intended hands feels a little surreal and every bit as emotional.
