CANADA POST DELIVERS WITH LITTLE TO GO ON
Child’s letter makes its way from B.C. to P.E.I. with few delivery details
Joe Lawless was going through his mail recently when a small baby blue envelope caught his attention.
On its face, amidst scribbledout words, was written, “To Nana and Papa, From Octavia.” The only other information was “adress: 688 Baker Street, Summer, P.E.I.” (twice).
Lawless and his wife, Nancy, quickly realized it was a letter from their nine-year-old granddaughter Octavia Dixon-lawless.
What surprised the Summerside residents is how the letter managed to make it all the way from Maple Ridge, B.C., where their son Marc lives with his family, to their home. The letter did not have a stamp, postal code, proper recipient names or a full community name.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” said Joe.
In fact, he was so impressed, he went to the Canada Post office in Summerside to thank them.
“Kudos to Canada Post for letting this slip through the cracks.”
In the letter, written in purple marker, Octavia tells her grandparents that she had recently taught an older girl how to do a back flip, that she wants to visit Paris, France, that she intends to send them a painting and that she misses them.
“Pleas right back to me,” she wrote.
Joe brought the letter to the attention of the Summerside Journal Pioneer because he thought it was cute and he felt there is enough ‘bad’ news in the world that a story about a little girl’s letter reaching its destination might brighten someone’s day.
“Someone might get a chuckle and smile out of it,” he said.
As for Octavia, it turns out she is a letter writing ninja.
Her parents had no idea she’d sent the note to her grandparents until it was on its way and they did not think it would get to P.E.I.
Marc remembers his daughter calling him one day while he was getting groceries and she asked for Joe and Nancy’s address, but he didn’t think much of it at the time. She had never sent a letter on her own before.
When she told him later she had already sent it, he gently explained that nana and papa might not get her letter because it didn’t have enough information on it.
She was excited when she found it had indeed reached its destination.
“I was really proud that I taught a 14-year-old how to do a back flip,” said Octavia, explaining why she sent the message.
Now that she knows how happy it made her grandparents, she intends to send more letters, she said. Email is, after all, so very impersonal.