Several WWI love letters written by one soldier to his sweetheart find their way to the relatives of the couple after the family who found them got very determined to return them to the rightful hands.
Phil Mathies and his wife had wanted a new bathroom upstairs in their home in downtown Jasper, Indiana so they hired a contractor to fix the wiring first. Surprisingly, the contractor uncovered several old and yellowed WWI love letters tucked within the insulation wall in Mathies’ attic.
Upon closer investigation, Phil, along with his wife and sister, Barbara, found out that the writer of the WWI love letters was a WWI soldier by the name of Clements Berger to his sweetheart named Mary Borho.
Clements wrote the WWI love letters to Mary while he was in service-in-training in West Point, Kentucky and was preparing to be deployed into the Great War. They were dated July 1918. Other than the WWI love letters, Phil, his wife and Barbara also found a black and white postcard.
In the WWI love letters, Clements expressed his fear of being deployed into the front lines of the First World War. He was afraid that it would be the last time he would see the town of Jasper, Indiana along with the love of his life, Mary. But he was also intent on fulfilling his duty as a soldier.
Determined to let the WWI love letters go into the rightful owners, Phil asked a local newspaper to feature them.
Subsequently, that did the trick!
Mary McCune and Nancy Teder, nieces of Clements and Mary, got hold of the story. Immediately, they contacted Phil. According to Mary, she was flabbergasted after reading the feature article and the letters. Additionally, Nancy pointed out that Clements WWI love letters were not just about his love for their aunt Mary but he also wrote down in them how he lived his life as a soldier in training and in real combat during the Great War.
Both women conveyed their gratitude to Phil, his wife and sister Barbara for preserving the WWI love letters as well as their aspiration to find the relatives of the owners.
They added that Clements Berger and Mary Borho did have their happy ending. The First World War’s end was officially declared in June 1919. It was a year after when the sweethearts got married.
Nevertheless, how the WWI love letters ended up in Phil Mathies’ house still remains a mystery.