Speak about a poor postal service; one can never contemplate a delay of this sort even if the postal service is bad. But then again, during times of civil strife and war, public services can go haywire as this incident proves. A 72 year old love letter written by a wife to her husband serving with the allied forces as a Norwegian sailor during WWII ended up “Return to Sender” but reached only after 70 years.
United Services Organization volunteer Virginia Christoffersen wrote the most heartwarming of love letters to her husband saying “ I love you Rolf, as I love the warm sun that is what you are to my life, the sun about which everything else revolves for me." Unfortunately the letter never made it to her husband. The letter was returned to Virginia with a stamp saying “REFUSED” . It took the letter 70 years to reach its recipient who wasn’t even living at the address to receive it.
Virginia’s 72-year-old love letter was found in a crack in the attic stairs by a family who had moved into the same house where she had once lived. Melissa Fahy and her father Al Cook found the stained envelope which may have been thrown into the house and got lodged in the gap of the stairs lying unnoticed for decades. Here is the letter:
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It was a time when there was no email, no, texting, no Facebook messenger or whatsapp. It was Pen and paper which still remains one of the most powerful medium when expressing emotions through words. Said Melissa “When I read it, I just couldn’t believe the love and admiration she had for her husband, it was really sweet to see that long-distance love. You didn’t have texting, you didn’t have email.”
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It was evident from the love letter that Virginia was pregnant at the time. In the letter she requests her husband Rolf to “please be a very good boy and stay away from the rum-and-coca-cola!”. Fahy was so moved that she actually tracked down the Christoffersens and through Facebook, found the couple’s son also named Rolf. When the man heard about the letter he immediately called his dad.
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You can well imagine the heart rending moment when Rolf Christoffersen now 96 read his wife loves letter. Writing this gives one a lump in the throat knowing that V irgina had died six years ago. An emotional Rolf toll reporters from CNN that ““I was very happy to find out that a letter like that existed. I am still very emotional."
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Rolf said that Virginia had often written to him while he was serving in the army but when the family moved to California in 1959, her letters were all lost. The 72-year-old love letter is one relic, of course, has remained as a testimony and symbol of love and the separation suffered by couples during the war.
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Rolf has been awarded the Atlantic Star medal recently by the Norwegian Consul for his participation in the battle for the Atlantic. The medal was a result of the efforts of a man in Norway tracking down allied veterans from Norway and helping them get the distinction and medals they deserve. Christofferson was undoubtedly happy with the medal but even more than happy that he had one letter which he never received from his loving wife, God rest her soul.
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