Suburban Chicago custodian finds WWII letter, returns it to veteran’s son

ELGIN — A Post Office custodian has returned a World War II letter he recently found while moving storage cabinets to the son of the soldier who wrote it in 1944 from France.

Elgin’s Courier-Newsreports Army veteran Edward Gathman kept the letter as a memento while working at the Post Office. He left the Elgin job in 1973 and died in 2007 at age 95.

Custodian Thomas Caulfield says it fell out when a cabinet’s doors popped open. He used social media to locate Gathman’s son, Bruce Gathman, in South Carolina.

The letter is addressed to Gathman’s wife and son. It starts, “Dear Mommy and Bruce.” It laments the war didn’t seem likely to end soon. It adds: “I sure would like to be home.”

Gathman signed the letter, “Love, Daddy.”