Over the years, these letters plus those addressed to him were separated from his family, and were eventually placed in a tin box under a pile of old magazines in the basement of Kingsville, Ontario.

Angela Thompson bought the box through an online auction in Chatham about eight years ago and almost forgot about it about a month ago. She began sifting through it and found 38 hidden letters, many of which were written to Betty Starkman in Detroit.

Watch | Angela Thompson found the following letter:

She quickly realized the historical and personal importance of this letter.

She said: “These letters do not belong to me.” She immediately knew that she would give them to her family again.

She said that although she opened some letters just to get more information about who they were, she quickly prevented herself from reading further.

“When I realized it was a war letter, I was like’No. Because I knew from my grandparents that you wouldn’t read that book, it’s very personal.”

“Obviously they were found”

Soon after, Thompson found information about the late Morris and Betty Starkman on the Internet. Their obituary took her to a family member she could contact through social media.

Their granddaughter Meredith Starkman, based in Brooklyn, New York, was the first person to respond with excitement and skepticism.

She said: “We are like on the moon.”

Her father Rob Starkman (Rob Starkman) was vigilant at first, and then let gratitude wash over him.

Morris and Betty’s son, Starkman, said: “It’s amazing that people have discovered them over the years.”

Rob remembers his parents as “great and sincere people”.

Morris was born in Toronto and studied at the University of Toronto School of Medicine. In the late 1940s, his family moved to Detroit, where he finally met Betty.

They married on Christmas Day in 1952 and spent their honeymoon in San Francisco. Soon after, Morris joined the war on the front line and did not see his wife again for two years.

Letter, the gateway to war memories

“He has a lot of PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] Because of the war,” Rob recalled.

“My father is in a war zone, where there are a lot of deaths. He has seen terrible, terrible things.”

Watch | Rob Starkman (Rob Starkman) on whether to read letters:

Rob Starkman explained why he supported his daughter’s choice to read the letter, even if he decided not to read it himself. 1:25

Rob remembers letters from when he was a child. He recalled meeting them by chance when he was around eight or nine. Father found him “reading letters” and then became “angry”.

Rob said: “I haven’t read them, nor opened any of them.” “He said: “Those are private between you and my mother. I don’t want you to read them. They are not suitable for you, not suitable for Susan (my Sister), they are just between my mother and me.'”

For many years, this kind of memory has been left on him, which is why now, decades later, he chooses to keep his promises important. He can’t read those letters.

He said: “They are very personal people, and these letters are also very personal. My father made this very clear.”

“In the end I hope to bury the original letter with me, because I will be buried with my parents.”

Memories of Morris and Betty

At the same time, he supports his daughter in choosing to read the letters carefully by herself, and understands that this is a more opportunity for her to get to know her grandfather because she is named after him. Before Meredith was born, Morris died suddenly in 1993. Rob said that the loss of her husband caused a huge loss to her mother. She died in 2016.

Thompson mailed the letters carefully to Meredith. She was sorting them. This was a special care inherited by her grandmother, a genealogist. Betty Starkman established the Jewish Genealogy Society in Michigan in 1985.

Meredith said: “That’s why this is the craziest story.”

“My grandmother’s life dedicated to this kind of thing is actually looking at the family lineage… So finding these really really looks like a comprehensive situation.”

She said that reading some of the exchanges between grandparents is a “phenomenon.”

She said: “They love each other very much.”

“It is very sad that they have stayed together since they got married, but from these letters it is clear that they care about each other.”

The letters “return to where they belong”

Rob remembers witnessing this kind of care when he was a child.

“They dance every Saturday night, because they have been apart for so long, so they never met when they were together, whether it was a newspaper or sitting on the sofa together. Every moment.”

As for how these letters were initially settled in Canada, Rob is not sure. But he believes that this happened when the family had to sell his mother’s house in 2013 when his mother moved into assisted living. At that time, many items in the house were sold.

Now, a few years later, Rob is happy to see these letters “return to where they belonged.”

He said: “I really thank Angela very much for contacting all of us.”

“So many people will look at them, and then… throw them into the trash can and other things, and she kindly extended a helping hand to our family.”