The letter was found inside an old toolbox purchased at a farm auction
A Michigan man stumbled upon a 70-year-old love letter in an unusual place: a secondhand toolbox.
Rick Trojanowski, a Grand Rapids resident, told FOX 17 West Michigan that he purchased the toolbox at a farm auction in 2017. He was astonished when he came across the letter several years later.
"It's almost like a true love story," Trojanowski said. "People just don't write things like that nowadays."
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"It's almost like poetry," he added.
Grand Rapids resident Rick Trojanowski recently came across the romantic letter in a toolbox he purchased in 2017. (FOX 17 West Michigan)
The letter was penned by U.S. Army Cpl. Irvin G. Fleming and sent from San Francisco, California. It was postmarked March 3, 1953.
Fleming addressed the letter to Mary Lee Cribbs, who lived in Grand Rapids. He began the letter by apologizing that he hadn't written to his sweetheart in "such a long time."
"I'm also sorry I said what I said in my last letter to you," Fleming wrote. "I didn't mean to say the things I said and I hope you'll forgive me."
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"I'll never do that again, believe me," he continued. "Mary, I need you so very much…and I know that I'll always love you."
The letter was penned by U.S. Army Cpl. Irvin G. Fleming and sent to Grand Rapids from San Francisco. (FOX 17 West Michigan)
It appeared that Fleming and Cribbs had a serious disagreement, prompting the soldier to write an apologetic message. He said that he hadn't heard from her in five months.
"I can't get you out of my mind no matter how hard I try," the 70-year-old letter reads.
Fleming also asked Cribbs to marry him when he came back to Michigan – something he said she had agreed to do.
"Please answer this letter as soon as you can for my sake, O.K.," the soldier wrote. "In 7 more months I'll be home and believe me it'll be the happiest day in my life when I can get you in my arms again."
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In the lengthy letter, Fleming asked Cribbs to marry him - something she had apparently agreed to. (FOX 17 West Michigan)
The letter signs off with: "Well that's about all I can say, so I'll be seeing you in 7 months, take it easy, I'll be thinking of you always."
Trojanowski is currently searching for family members of Fleming or Cribbs.
"I did try to do a little research on Facebook to try to locate some of the people involved with it," Trojanowski said.
"I really don't have any use for it and if we can find the people it belongs to, the kids, I think it'd be really neat for them."
Rick Trojanowski is looking to reunite the letter with Fleming's or Cribbs' descendants. (FOX 17 West Michigan)
Fox News Digital reached out to Trojanowski for comment.
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Andrea Vacchiano is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. You can follow her on X at @andrea_vacch or send story tips to
