While sorting through junk mail and coupons destined for the shredder, a cashier at an Asda supermarket in England made an extraordinary discovery. Shuffled in with the papers in the store’s lost and found bin was an envelope date-stamped 1945. Stacie Adamson saved the parcel when she realized it had been written during World War II, and now she’s on a mission to return it to the original owner, Manchester Evening News reports.
The love letter was sent by a British woman named Dorothy to her sweetheart, Harry Hughes, while he was stationed in what is now Sri Lanka as a pilot for the Royal Air Force. In the message, Dorothy writes of voting in the General Election earlier that day and about her dreams of marrying Harry when he returns home.
Jump forward 71 years later, and the romantic memento somehow ended up in the lost property bin of the Greater Manchester Asda. The store workers aren’t sure how it got there, but they’ve since turned to Facebook to spread the story.
Thanks to some online sleuthing, Adamson was able to track down old footage of the same Harry Hughes mentioned in the letter. The video belongs to a series titled Calling Blighty, which was filmed in India and Southeast Asia during the war. You can visit this link to watch Harry give a shout-out to his mom, dad, and his girl Dorothy back home.
Adamson reached out to the website that posted the video and they’ve agreed to join her search for Harry or someone close to him. She said in a news statement from Asda, “My ultimate goal is to hand the letter back in person to Harry—that would be absolutely amazing. If that isn’t possible, giving it to a member of his family would be the next best thing.”
[h/t Manchester Evening News]
November 8, 2016 – 5:30pm