Widow is reunited with love letters after 45 years

Builder finds handwritten notes in attic of former sailor’s home

The widow of a sailor has been reunited with love letters from her husband – 45 years after she lost them.

Marjory Day from Dunfermline and her late husband David wrote to each other during his 12 years in the navy in the 1950s and 60s.

David wrote hundreds of letters to his wife – the bulk of which were sent during a two-year period from 1959, where he wrote one every day.

But when Marjory, 84, moved house in the 1970s, she thought she had lost her treasured letters forever.

Little did she know that builder Alistair Hogg, 55, had found them in the floor space of the attic while renovating her former house in the Fife town.

Marjory said being reunited with the letters felt like a “story of fate”.

She said: “I didn’t sleep for two days when I was told what had happened.

“I thought I had lost them years ago and I didn’t even tell my family – I felt so embarrassed to tell them.

“But now since these letters have come back to me, it seems to be a story of fate. You didn’t have a phone or anything like you do now to communicate. He spent weeks away so all we could do was write to each other every night.

“Some of the letters would be pages and pages long.”

David joined the navy at the age of 16 in 1954 and retired as a sailor around 1967.

His heartfelt letters to Marjory told of how much he loved her and how he wanted to return home.

She said: “Telling my family about the letters was a big surprise to them.

“I nearly fainted when I saw them. My heart was thumping. His letters were always about how much he loved me and just how he always wanted to come home to his family.

“He wrote every night to me and all of them said he missed me.”

Originally from Gloucestershire, David met Marjory when his ship docked in Rosyth and he went for a night out at the Kinema Ballroom.

He then joined the police force and spent the rest of his days in the force except for a quick stint as a salesman.

The couple had four children – Raymond, 65, Gavin, 59, Steven, 49, and Sylvia, 59 – and 23 grandchildren.

Builder Alistair said he was proud to have reunited the letters with their rightful owner.

He said: “I’m just grateful they are back with their rightful owner as if I hadn’t found them they probably would have been lost forever.”

Marjory added: “It makes me cry every time I read these letters, but it makes me happy to see how much he loved me. I’m so thankful to Alistair.”

Picture: SWNS Marjory Day with the box of letters discovered by a builder working in her former home.