Grandmother’s final letter taken during break-in
An Edmonton woman is heartbroken over the loss of an unopened letter written by her grandma who recently died . The letter was among some personal items stolen when her house was broken into Friday.
Jenny Black’s grandma Doreen Mann unexpectedly died on Aug. 1 at 83-years-old after suffering a stroke. During her time in the hospital she never regained consciousness, said Black. Her family was able to say goodbye, but her grandma could not say anything in return.
“Early last week we were cleaning out her home and we found these letters that she had left for every member of our family. It was sort of her way of getting to say her final goodbye, so that was a wonderful discovery to make,” said Black.
“I just wasn’t ready to read mine yet. I was going to take a little bit of time so I had put it in our house on the counter until I was ready.”
On Friday, Black left her home in the west-end neighbourhood of Westridge to go out for lunch. When she returned, she said the house “stank” of cigarettes and immediately she knew someone had been in her home as neither Black or her husband smoke. She called the police and did a walk through with them, taking stock of the things that were stolen, which included some of her husband’s tools and electronics including an ipad. That’s when she noticed the letter from her grandma was missing.
“They must have thought there was money in it or a cheque in it or something and just grabbed it. That was a really difficult realization,” said Black.
“Beyond the violation of someone being in your house while you’re not there and going through your stuff, knowing that they have something so personal to me and so precious was kind of like losing her all over again.”
On Saturday Black took to social media, posting a photo of her sister’s letter and asking people to keep an eye out for one that looks the same, but addressed to “Jen.”
“I think the worst thing is I just don’t know what she said. I can guess because she wasn’t shy about telling us how she felt. I don’t know if I’ll ever find it but there’s no harm in trying.”
Black said her grandma had strokes in previous years, so that’s why they believe she wrote the letters. She’s doubtful the thief still has the letter but if they do, she hopes they realize its value and return it.
“They don’t know what they’ve taken. They were looking for something valuable and it’s so valuable to me. It’s the last thing she’ll ever say to me and they’ve taken that from me,” said Black, choking up.
“I don’t care about anything else, I just want the letter back and I want the same chance everyone else in my family has had to be able to know what she would have said (to me) if she could.”