A postal worker found old letters from World War II and was able to find the person they belonged to.
Alvin Gauthier, a letter carrier for the United States Postal Service for about 20 years, found the handwritten letters while getting ready for work. reported NBC 5 DFW.
“I was getting ready for my route and found some letters that were dated back to 1942, so World War II,” Gauthier told NBC 5.
Gauthier felt a strong connection to the lost letters and was determined to locate the family they were meant for.
“Being a veteran myself, so I’m like, man, this is some history! Because, once again, mail boosts morale for all soldiers, so my main thought was I have to find this family,” said Gauthier, per NBC 5.
The issue was that the address on the letters was for Jacksonville, Arkansas, a city with a population of nearly 30,000 people. Thankfully, the letters included the soldier’s name and a military return address.
To help in his search, Gauthier got in touch with NBC in Little Rock, who then published a story that ultimately led him to the family of the soldier who wrote the letters — Marion Lamb — in Jacksonville.
The final step was delivering the letters in person. Gauthier drove to Jacksonville on his day off at his own expense to make the delivery.
“I could have stuck them in the mail, but it’s kinda like sometimes you have to go above and beyond,” Gauthier said, per NBC 5. “Just go the extra mile … or 379 miles.”
A family member had sent the letters in a package to Debbie Smith, Lamb’s niece, who lives in Grand Prairie, reported NBC 5. Smith, who is the family’s historian, never received the letters, however, because the package somehow opened along the way causing the letters to become lost in transit.
“It restores your faith in people. And we saw the connection, the real connection, between military families,” Debbie Smith, Lamb’s niece, told NBC affiliate KARK.
“They are like my family now,” Gauthier said, per NBC 5. “And if kinda something like this happens next week, I will do the same thing again!”
