Lost Letter to a Friend in Holland Found After 50 Years!

Frans Slot tot Everlo                                29 Emmastraat 29                                Gravenhage                                          Holland

When I appeared on the cover of Life Magazine in 1946, people from all over the world wrote to me and also sent me gifts.  A British General sent me a leather book cover where he was stationed in Java.  An Army Private sent me a coconut from Hawaii.  That was a big deal.  I also received wooden shoes from a family in Holland.  

We corresponded with the family in Holland for almost seven years.  Then I lost contact with them.  Read on for an interesting story about the letter that my sister found in the autumn of 2003 after going through boxes of letters she had kept, after more than 50 years! 

I wrote this letter to my friend Frans in Holland in 1953.  He and his family had been corresponding with my family since I was on the cover of Life Magazine in 1946!  My sister had been married in the autumn of 1952 and when I wrote this in May of 1953, my mother was suffering terribly from cancer and she passed away that autumn.  It was a horrible time for me and for several years I was very depressed as all my hopes and desires I had made with my mother would never happen.  

So this letter failed to get mailed and I lost contact with the Everlo family.  Now, after over 50 years, I am trying to locate Frans or any of the family.  Time shall tell if I am successful!

Reading the letter is interesting as I just saw a TV show on the big flood in Holland that happened in 1953 and in the letter, I asked about it!  I also made comments about how expensive it was to have photos printed, in New York City no less, for my sister's wedding.  Now we have instant gratification, digital photos!

I did a search on the web and did come up with a location of the address on a map.  The address is about 30 miles, 50 kilometers, from Amsterdam!