World War II soldier's letter travels through time to reach its destination after 76 years

It's a common tradition for soldiers embarking on important missions to leave letters for the family, which are to be sent out if they don't return. During the uncertain times of World War II, several soldiers penned letters to their loved ones, but many of the messages were unfortunately lost before they could be delivered. One of those was sent by an American soldier named John Gonsalves was serving in Germany in the final days of World War II. He penned a letter to his mother who was living in Massachusetts, but it only reached her address after a 76-year delay.

According to The Washington Post, the U.S. Postal Service finally managed to deliver the letter to Gonsalves' family, after 76 years. At this point, the soldier and his mother had both passed away, leaving behind his 89-year-old widow Angelina "Jean" Gonsalves to receive the letter. Jean, who lives in Woburn, Massachusetts, was stunned to find the airmail envelope that was dropped off at her home. Gonsalves' letter had a 6-cent stamp on it and it was forwarded by a Pittsburgh mailing facility. The soldier himself had passed away at the age of 92 in 2015 but receiving the letter took Jean on a trip down memory lane.

“Seventy-six years! I could hardly believe it when I looked at the date. For a letter from Johnny to suddenly show up out of nowhere was amazing," Jean told the outlet, when she received the letter in December 2021. Gonsalves had written the letter when he was a 22-year-old Army sergeant deployed in Bad Orb, Germany which was close to a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp that was liberated by American soldiers. “Dear Mom — Received another letter from you today and was happy to hear that everything is okay,” the letter said. “As for myself, I’m fine and getting along okay. But as far as the food, it’s pretty lousy most of the time,” it further read.

Gonsalves then wrote, “I’ll be seeing you — soon, — I hope," at the bottom of the letter but not before complaining about the poor weather conditions in Germany. “It sounded just like Johnny,” Jean approved, revealing that her late husband had enlisted in the army back in 1943. “It was a weird feeling — like he was standing there, reading it to me. I smiled when I saw his beautiful handwriting. I always loved how he wrote his E’s.” Jean added that when the mailman rang her doorbell to hand her the letter, she also found a note from a certain Stephen D. Stowell, who works at the U.S. Postal Service’s processing and distribution center in Pittsburgh.

“Enclosed please find a letter from your husband, John Gonsalves, to his mother dated December 6, 1945,” Stowell wrote. “We are aware of the passing of your husband in 2015 (our condolences). As his next of kin, this letter now passes to you. We are uncertain where this letter has been for the past seven-plus decades but it arrived at our facility approximately six weeks ago. By virtue of some dedicated sleuth work by postal workers at this facility, we were able to determine your address, hence this letter delivery to you, albeit 76 years late.” Jean called Stowell and thanked him for forwarding the letter safely to her.

“It might be 76 years late but to us, it’s perfect timing,” Gonsalves' 54-year-old son told the outlet. “I can picture my dad writing that letter to his mom, hoping he would soon be coming home to see her. Although it never made it to his mom, it made it to mine. And we’ve all been on an amazing little journey because of it.”