Northern Ont. family finds wartime love letters that had been missing for weeks

A Sudbury-area family is relieved after a missing box of love letters sent during the Second World War was found.

The Racicot family had been searching for roughly three weeks for the box of precious mementos that contained love letters sent between Stella and Frank Racicot.

Photo of Stella and Frank Racicot. Dec. 14/21 (Molly Frommer/CTV Northern Ontario)

Earlier this week, the family received a call saying the letters had been found.

In mid-December, a relative, Wayne Price, made a trip to Thunder Bay to collect three boxes of old photos and the love letters from a family member.

Once he returned to the Sudbury area, Price was packing up his vehicle and mistakenly left the box of letters on the back of his truck and drove off.

Luckily for the family, the letters were found by Steven Sullivan, who was driving on the same road where the box of letters had gone missing.

"It was a clean box and that’s what caught my eye. So, I picked it up and I thought, wow this is interesting," Sullivan said

A Sudbury-area family is relieved after a missing box of love letters sent during the Second World War was found. (Molly Frommer/CTV News)

"So, I put it in my truck, and later that day, I took the box out of my truck and I explored the box more. And that’s when I saw, like, 50 letters and the stamp was four cents so I knew it was pretty old."

Stella and Frank’s son, Richard Racicot, said he can’t express how happy he is to have the letters back in his possession.

"It’s a link in the chain that put the chain back together and I’m so happy," Racicot said.

"These letters showed me a side of my father that I did not know existed. He raised me to be the man that I am and he was so in love with my mother, and I had no idea just how much they loved each other until I got these letters back."

The Racicot family said they are looking forward to reading all the letters and are thrilled they were returned in the same condition they were last seen.

"Everything was in pristine condition. There was no water damage, there was no damage whatsoever. Everything was in exactly the same condition," said Jennifer Racicot-Rybachuk, the couple’s granddaughter.

"For me, it’s relief and I’m at peace now. I’m happy. It warms my heart knowing that true love does exist ... I’ve never seen a love like that before."

It turns out that Sullivan is a distant relative of the Racicot’s.

"The fella who found the letters, I did not know existed but when he contacted us and I got to know him I find out that we’re related," said Richard Racicot.

"His grandma and my mom were sisters … We’re going to keep in touch a little more this summer. I’m going to have him and his parents out for a BBQ."