Letter mailed in 1945 finally makes it to soldier's family

It took 76 years for Army Sgt. John Gonsalves' letter to his mother to arrive, yet it seemed to show up at just the right time for the rest of his family.

Gonsalves penned the note on Dec. 6, 1945, while stationed in Germany after World War II. The 22-year-old wrote that he was doing "fine and getting along okay. But as far as the food, it's pretty lousy most of the time." The letter was supposed to go to his mother's house in Woburn, Massachusetts, but it got lost on the way, and was found last year at a U.S. Postal Service distribution facility in Pittsburgh. Workers there vowed to track down the Gonsalves family and finally deliver the letter.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.