Letters delivered 50 years after they were posted

A letter written to a 12-year-old girl in Lithuania was delivered in December, almost 51 years after it was sent by a pen pal in Poland. “I thought that someone was pranking me,” said Genovefa Klonovska after being handed the letter, which included a handmade colored rose and two paper dolls. The letter, together with 17 others, fell out of a ventilation hole last summer, dirty and crumbled, as a wall was demolished in a former post office on the outskirts of Vilnius. “The workers suggested we throw the old letters away, but I called the post office instead,” said Jurgis Vilutis, the owner of the building. “I’m so happy they got interested.” The letters, from the late 1960s and early 1970s, were likely hidden by an unscrupulous postal worker after he searched them for cash or valuables, Vilutis said. Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union then, and the senders were emigrant relatives or pen pals from places such as Australia, Poland or Russia. Only five recipients were found. In several cases, the lost letters were handed to children of deceased recipients. (Reuters) This article was provided by The Japan Times Alpha.