A 41-year-old woman has been reaching out to the Newmarket community and beyond on social media time and again in the hopes of finding the owner of a 70-year-old letter written to a woman in Toronto from possibly "her beau."
Jackie Williams, who works at the clerical department of Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, was walking from her workplace to an automobile shop to pick her car up when she found a letter on the ground on a chilly afternoon in November 2021.
"At first, I walked right past it. And then I went back because the letter caught my attention. It was in pristine condition. When I read the date on it, I immediately thought wow, somebody's going to miss this," Williams recollected.
The letter was written to Miss Mary Russell in Toronto from Bruce in Kitchener on Sept. 2, 1953. The letter starts with "Hi honey" and ends with "All my love, Bruce".
Williams concluded from the letter that the writer and the recipient were potentially in their early 20s in 1953. "So, they would be nonagenarians now, and if they had any children, they would be 60 or 70 years old, too," she added.
Williams, a resident of Essa Township, wasn't part of any local groups on social media platforms. Her friend had shared the story of the found letter on a local Facebook group for Newmarket residents in 2021 to see if she could find anybody or have anybody's interest piqued.
"Unfortunately, nobody came around. I've been holding onto the letter since then and a year rolled by and it was still in my possession," Williams shared with NewmarketToday.
And she wasn't ready to give up on her quest yet.
She joined one of the Newmarket community groups on Facebook recently and posted: "It has been a year since I found this letter. I had no luck the first time it was shared. I would really like to find the owner of who this letter belongs to. It was found on the sidewalk on Mulock, just west of Prospect (Bayview). It is in near perfect condition from 1953. It was obviously very much treasured, written by what seemed to be a Beau... ? Please help it find its way home. Please share."
The post was shared multiple times so far and grabbed some attention too. Someone pointed out the recipient's address at Imperial Insurance Co, 20 Victoria Street, Toronto is now a heritage property. According to Williams, "There's actually a restaurant in that building and not the insurance company anymore."
Williams also hoped someone through her social media post can find out who lives at 166 Margaret Ave. in Kitchener, where the letter was written from. She is afraid that considering the sender of the letter "could possibly now be deceased, and maybe a child of the couple had the letter. It would be impossible to trace through the post office even."
According to Williams, the letter did not have signs of being impacted by the weather apart from normal aging. She believed that it was dropped the very same day she found it.
"This letter has sentimental value to somebody out there, and I would just like to see it get to the rightful hands because I know if it was communication between my parents and my parents were potentially deceased. It would be something that I would treasure to have in my possession," Williams shared.
