In October 1961, only four months out of high school, a young Marine training at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina penned a heartfelt three-page letter to his girlfriend back home in Pennsylvania.
With impeccable but tiny handwriting, Anthony Adamski affirmed his love for her, remembered good times like their first date at Ringing Rocks Roller Rink near Pottstown, and even expressed a little jealousy toward another potential suitor. He also composed a long poem expressing his feelings, one of many he would write.
At her parents’ home in Audubon, Montgomery County, Linda Koehler was just beginning her senior year at Norristown High School and missing Adamski.
She read the letter and poem over and over, her heart fluttering with each line. She kept it along with other keepsakes from Anthony in the drawer of the nightstand next to her bed.
Three years later, in 1964, Anthony and Linda were married. After serving four years in the Marines stationed in Okinawa, Anthony worked as a mechanic for Mack Trucks before opening his own repair shop. Linda worked in finance for a while before managing a dentist’s office. They raised two kids before Anthony passed away in 2019. They had been married for 56 years.
Along the way, Linda’s collection of precious mementos — the letters, pictures and poems — disappeared, an unfortunate casualty of several moves and the demands of a busy family life.
*****
On a routine afternoon in late April this year, Kira Schaible was rummaging through some old boxes at Liberty Thrift in Quakertown where she works. It was her job that day to sort through the items and decide what to keep and what to throw away. At the bottom of one box, among broken household items destined for the scrap heap, Schaible found a yellowed envelope with the faded image of a military figure printed on the front. To break the boredom, she opened the letter and read the first line: “Hi There Lover,” it said.
Right away, Schaible knew it was something special. Her co-workers, however, shrugged and suggested she toss it away with the rest of the junk. Schaible was having none of it.
“I was like, ‘I can’t do that.’ I knew it was important to someone,” recalled the 21-year-old Perkasie resident.
Schaible brought the letter home and turned it over to her boyfriend, Kenny Dubois, and his grandmother. Terri Weinstein, who had been married to a Vietnam War veteran, immediately recognized the image on the envelope. She had received several letters in the same kind of envelope.
“I cried three times when I read it,” said Weinstein. “I know how important those letters were. Everyone wanted to know if I was O.K.”
Determined to reunite the letter with its owner, Weinstein turned to social media. Pretty soon, a member of the Perkasie Community Facebook page found Anthony Adamski’s obituary. Another one found contact information for Linda Adamski. Weinstein sent her a Facebook message offering to return the letter. Then she waited. And waited.
“I was really disappointed,” said Weinstein. “I thought she wasn’t going to respond. I was at the bottom of my bucket, the last drop of hope, you know?”
And then, out of the blue almost three weeks after reaching out, Adamski texted her. “Are you the one who is looking for me?” she asked.
They ended up talking on the phone for an hour that day, two strangers bonded by a letter full of youthful tenderness written 61 years ago from a lonely Marine to his high school sweetheart, sharing details of their lives like they had been friends forever.
*****
On a recent Sunday, Weinstein, Shaible, and Dubois paid a visit to Adamski at her home in Oaks, near Phoenixville, to return the letter. It was a spirit boost for the 78-year-old Adamski, who lives alone and spends several hours a couple of days a week undergoing kidney dialysis.
“My gosh, it felt good,” said Adamski. “It brought back a lot of very good memories.”
At first, Adamski had no recollection of the letter. In fact, she wondered why Anthony had never mailed it. But then she saw a note she had scribbled on the back of the envelope and it all came back to her.
How the letter ended up at Liberty Thrift is a mystery. Adamski suspects it was left in a box in an attic along with other stuff during one of their moves and the new owner donated it to the thrift store. She was touched that a young person such as Shaible would grasp the importance of a letter written more than a half century ago.
Meanwhile, Weinstein and Adamski have made plans to have lunch together soon at the Franconia Heritage restaurant in Franconia.
“I think I have a new friend,” said Weinstein.
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