Saturday, September 10, 2011

Please Help Me Find My Wife's Letters

Hello all.

My wife and I recently moved cross country.  We ended up shipping pretty much all of our stuff.  One of the boxes contained some clothes and then various files from our file cabinet--including a file that had correspondence from my wife.  I had meticulously kept every card, letter, post it note, etc that my wife had given me since we started dating 8 years ago.

The box arrived in horrible condition.  The entire side (well I think it was originally the top but it had been smashed) was split open.  Inside, there were a few letters and cards, some of our files, most of the clothes, and some other people's mail and books.  What we think happened was the box got damaged in shipping and spilled some contents out.  The mail carriers then stuffed whatever was around into the box, didn't reseal it and kept it going.  Needless to say, most of the letters are lost.  I called USPS and they will get me in contact with the lost mail department, but I'm not holding my breath.

I know the chances of the internet finding them are very slim, but I thought maybe if enough people see this, someone who ended up with our letters might find it.  Since we ended up with other people's books and letters, maybe my letters ended up in someone else's mail.  Please share this widely!!  If you happened to get our letters, please email me at helpmefindmywifesletters@gmail.com.

Thanks,

David

The box as it arrived

All That's Left From 8 Years of Letters and Notes

Random Children's Books Found in the Box

Random Person's Mail Found in the Box

20 comments:

  1. Were you able to find any other contact info for the random person?

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  2. Nope. We sent a letter to them describing the situation and asking if any of our letters were delivered to their address but haven't heard back.

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  3. Posting this to my Facebook page and asking others to do the same. I really hope you find them!

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  4. I'll keep my eyes peeled and write an article at The Daily Serge to raise awareness!

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  5. So posting the name and address that was on the letter would be too much of a liability? I am now pretty sure why you haven't turned up doo-doo in your search.

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  6. USPS has terrible customer service. In this case I really hope they help out like they should. && how could they not re-seal? Ugh, anyways - saw your posting in an article. Wishing you luck!

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  7. i hope you find them, i posted a link of your story on my blog, best of luck!

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  8. I have posted this to my fb page and twitter account. Good luck with your search!

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  10. Really hope you get the letters. I would be devastated if I lost my husband's love letters. Sending lots of luck and good thoughts! Will repost on Facebook!

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  11. hmm...this story seems fishy. Why don't you just track down the owner of the multiple pieces of mail you say you received yourself? Simple ASK them whether they have your letters? Rather than some social experiment to see how many people will bend over backward to repost this to facebook etc? (I won't be so skeptical to suggest it might be because it wouldn't make a charming story you can publicize yourselves w/to NPR or something) Also, why blot out the other person's name and address on their mail? No one can help you without that. I'm calling shenanigans.

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  12. Thanks for the insightful comment Susan. We already did send a letter to the person whose mail was in our box but they haven't seen them. And I would love to contact the owners of the books if they had any sort of identifying information on them, but you know, they're books. I'm glad to see that most people aren't as bitter and skeptical as you are.

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  14. Hey all,

    Thank you for the thoughtful comments and suggestions. I made digg and reddit links to try and reach more people.

    Digg Link: http://digg.com/news/lifestyle/love_letters_lost_please_help_me_find_my_wife_s_letters
    Reddit Link: http://www.reddit.com/user/helpmefindmyletters/

    Thanks again!

    David

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  15. Hope you will find that letter soon. Wish you luck..

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  16. Good luck David!

    It's surprising that people can be negative about absolutely anything. But I guess that's a good sign that your page is reaching people outside of the people who personally know you and are fully aware that this is a real situation. Good luck to you and Liz, and on the bright side, you have and love each other and can write more beautiful letters :)

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  17. How do we know if something is yours? What's your wife's name? What city was the origin and the destination? Usually, the USPS can help you figure out what path the mail usually goes to and narrow down the cities for the search. If you can flesh out what to keep an eye out for and maybe where, I'll post this on my relationship blog!

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  18. Hi, I've reposted this post on the blog I put together while on hold with USPS, hope that's ok! Thanks!
    http://uspscontentsdestroyed.blogspot.com/

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