In This Europe City, Some Lost Letters Just Reached The Right Addresses Half A Century Later

The postal department of Lithuania just delivered a bunch of letters to their destinations after they were found when a wall was demolished in building that served as a post office in the past.

Representational image of old letters | Photo: Getty

New Delhi: In Lithuania's capital city of Vilnius, some people have recently recieved letters that were written to them half a century ago, when the country was part of the Soviet Union. 

The postal department of Lithuania just delivered a bunch of letters to their destinations after they were found when a wall was demolished in building that served as a post office in the past on the outskirts of Vilnius, news agency Reuters reported, 

These letters, 17 others of them, reportedly fell out of a ventilation hole during the demolition of the wall, the report said.

"The workers suggested we throw the old letters away, but I called the post office instead. I'm so happy they got interested," Jurgis Vilutis, who owns the building, was quoted as saying.

"We felt a moral duty to do this," Deimante Zebrauskaite, head of the customer experience department at Lithuania Post, told Reuters.

The letters, found in a dirty and crumbled state, were all from the late 1960s and early 1970s, sent by emigrant relatives or pen pals from countries such as Australia, Poland, or Russia.

They might have been hidden by some "unscrupulous" postal worker after searching them for cash or valuables, Vilutis said.

Finding The Addresses And Recipients

Genovefa Klonovska was 12 years old when a pen pal in Poland sent her a letter nearly 51 years ago. She was handed it over in December. The envelope also contained two paper dolls and a handmade coloured rose.

"I thought that someone was pranking me," Klonovska said on receiving the letter stamped in 1970.

The Reuters report said it took the post office workers months to track down the right recipients. With street names and their numbering having changed in Vilnius, they spoke to current tenants and neighbours as they looked for the right houses.

While only five actual recipients were found, many of the lost letters were handed over to the children of the deceased recipients.

Recalling the response of one of the recipients, Zebrauskaite from Lithuania Post said: "One lady compared the experience to receiving a message from a bottle thrown into sea. People were emotional. Some felt they saw a part of daily life of their deceased parents."

The letter that Klonovska received from Koczary in Poland was sent by a girl, Ewa. Klonovska, now in her 60s, has no memory of her. She said she had probably written to Ewa after finding her address in a newspaper advertisement for pen-pals, and the relationship ended as the letter was not delivered.

In the letter, Ewa had complained that buses didn't reach her village any more, so she had to walk in -23 degrees Celsius. She had asked Klonovska to sent her pictures of actors.

"So good that the letter was inconsequential. The loss was not life-changing," Klonovska was quoted as saying. She wondered what if someone was delivered a lost letter from an ex-lover.