The letter of a fallen World War II Victim finally reached his daughter after 7 decades and if that isn’t enough of a surprise, you wouldn’t believe where the letter was found! Hit the jump for more detail!
7 decades later, Nevada resident Peggy Eddington-Smith received the letter from her Pfc. Father John Eddington , whom she had never met due to his untimely death in World War II. The letter was presented and read to her in a ceremony in Dayton, Nevada.
Peggy was contacted by Donna Gregory of St. Louis when she “found the soldier’s letter and other World War II memorabilia in a box 14 years ago while helping her then-husband clean out his grandparents’ home in Arnold, Mo., a St. Louis suburb.”
“Gregory’s voice cracked with emotion as she read the letter Saturday, bringing tears to Eddington-Smith and many in the crowd of about 150. The soldier devoted the first page to his wife, saying he hoped she did not find it “silly” that he was writing a letter to a child who could not read”
“Addressing the next two pages to his “darling” daughter, he wrote that while she may not see him “for some time,” he wanted her to know that she was always on his mind”
“I love you so much,” the letter says. “Your mother and daddy … are going to give you everything we can. We will always give you all the love we have.”
“Eddington urged his daughter to “always treat your mother right. You have the sweetest mother on the Earth.” He closed the letter by writing, “I love you with all my heart and soul forever and forever. Your loving daddy.”
The letter was sent while her father was stationed in Texas shortly before he left, yet died in Italy in 1944. The connection between the Gregory house and the Eddington soldier’s box is still unknown, he lived 75 miles from the residence prior.
Peggy Eddington-Smith grew up an only child, in St. Louis and “lived there until her mid-20s. She moved with her four children to Nevada in 1972 after a divorce. Her mother, Helen, never remarried and died in 1997.”
“I would ask my mother why she didn’t get remarried and her only comment was that she found the perfect man and will never again find the perfect man,” Eddington-Smith said.
