Michigan man finds 1953 love letter penned by Army soldier: 'It's almost like poetry'
A Grand Rapids, Michigan, resident found a 1953 love letter that a U.S. Army corporal wrote to his sweetheart. The letter was found inside of an old toolbox that sold at auction.
A Michigan man stumbled upon a 70-year-old love letter in an unusual place: a secondhand toolbox.
Rick Trojanowski, a Grand Rapids resident, told FOX 17 West Michigan that he purchased the toolbox at a farm auction in 2017. He was astonished when he came across the letter several years later.
"It's almost like a true love story," Trojanowski said. "People just don't write things like that nowadays."
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"It's almost like poetry," he added.
The letter was penned by U.S. Army Cpl. Irvin G. Fleming and sent from APO San Francisco. It was postmarked March 3, 1953.
Fleming addressed the letter to Mary Lee Cribbs, who lived in Grand Rapids. He began the letter by apologizing that he hadn't written to his sweetheart in "such a long time."
"I'm also sorry I said what I said in my last letter to you," Fleming wrote. "I didn't mean to say the things I said and I hope you'll forgive me."
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"I'll never do that again, believe me," he continued. "Mary, I need you so very much…and I know that I'll always love you."
It appeared that Fleming and Cribbs had a serious disagreement, prompting the soldier to write an apologetic message. He said that he hadn't heard from her in five months.
"I can't get you out of my mind no matter how hard I try," the 70-year-old letter reads.
Fleming also asked Cribbs to marry him when he came back to Michigan – something he said she had agreed to do.
"Please answer this letter as soon as you can for my sake, O.K.," the soldier wrote. "In 7 more months I'll be home and believe me it'll be the happiest day in my life when I can get you in my arms again."
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The letter signs off with: "Well that's about all I can say, so I'll be seeing you in 7 months, take it easy, I'll be thinking of you always."
Trojanowski is currently searching for family members of Fleming or Cribbs.
"I did try to do a little research on Facebook to try to locate some of the people involved with it," Trojanowski said.
"I really don't have any use for it and if we can find the people it belongs to, the kids, I think it'd be really neat for them."
Fox News Digital reached out to Trojanowski for comment.
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