World War II veteran receives 50,000 cards for his 96th birthday
Wanting her father to receive more than just bills in the mail, Sue Morse went online and asked friends if they would send him a card or quick note for his birthday.
Duane Sherman, a World War II veteran living in Southern California, turned 96 on Dec. 30, and the well-wishes started flooding in before his birthday, and have yet to let up. He's received more than 50,000 cards and letters, from 10 countries and every U.S. state. The Pittsburgh Steelers sent him a card, as did the Secretary of the Navy, and the band Foreigner mailed him a signed CD. Elementary school students and prison inmates have written Sherman letters thanking him for his service, and several Navy officers came by his house and took him out to lunch. Gift cards tucked inside cards have been donated by Sherman to people affected by the California wildfires.
Sherman told The Orange County Register he's "amazed, shocked, and appreciative. All the good comments people made, it just brightened my day." After Pearl Harbor, Sherman enlisted in the Navy, and he still has shrapnel in his back from an attack against his ship by a kamikaze plane. The Purple Heart recipient is legally blind, so his daughter is reading the cards to him, and she doesn't expect to finish any time soon — there are still bins filled to the brim with cards, waiting for Sherman at the post office. Catherine Garcia
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
The dazzling coral gardens of Raja AmpatThe Week Recommends Region of Indonesia is home to perhaps the planet’s most photogenic archipelago.
-
Trump’s White House ballroom: a threat to the republic?Talking Point Trump be far from the first US president to leave his mark on the Executive Mansion, but to critics his remodel is yet more overreach
-
‘Never more precarious’: the UN turns 80The Explainer It’s an unhappy birthday for the United Nations, which enters its ninth decade in crisis
-
ABC News to pay $15M in Trump defamation suitSpeed Read The lawsuit stemmed from George Stephanopoulos' on-air assertion that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll
-
Judge blocks Louisiana 10 Commandments lawSpeed Read U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled that a law ordering schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security lawSpeed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitutionspeed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidenceSpeed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulationsSpeed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriageSpeed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
