Jonathan Mason	- Download MP3-

It sounds like a plot from a Nicholas Sparks novel. A newlywed couple, while cleaning out the attic of their new home, discover a packet of old letters from a World War II soldier to his wife. When he checks the signature, the young man realizes he knows this couple; they live across the street from his parents.

“It’s crazy how this has come out,” said Jonathan Mason, who discovered the letters while cleaning out the house he and wife Rachael bought in East Ridge.

Mr. Mason said he climbed up in the attic a couple of weeks ago to see what was there. He found several boxes, one of which was open, revealing a packet of old envelopes. The ink was faded, and in some places illegible, but the letters’ sentiment came through clearly.

“We looked through a couple, and the parts we read were about a World War II soldier who missed his wife. We decided not to read more because they were personal,” Mr. Mason said.

But he had recognized the signature, Clyde Grant, and believed him to be his parents’ neighbor. Before marrying, Mr. Mason had lived across the street from the Grants in East Brainerd for more than a decade.

After confirming with his father, the Rev. Bill Mason, that it was the same gentleman, Mr. Mason left the letters with his father, who returned them the Grants.

“They’re love letters from a husband to his wife,” said Alnita Grant. “I was so surprised when Bill brought them over. I had a trunk with all sorts of stuff up there, and those letters must have fallen out.

“Clyde was in the 82nd Airborne in World War II, he was an Army paratrooper. When he first went over to Europe, he was in England, then France and then Germany until the war ended,” she said.

Mrs. Grant said the letters were written in 1944 and 1945. At that time she had been married two years, and in the dispatches her husband was describing where he was stationed and what his unit was doing. Also in the packet were valentines she had saved from her school parties in the early 1930s and a letter from her late brother written while he was stationed at Pearl Harbor.

Mrs. Mason said they learned that the Grants were the original owners of the home they had just bought. The Grants lived in that East Ridge home more than 30 years.

Mrs. Mason said she was further surprised when she realized Mr. Grant was a customer of Town and Country Barber Shop where she is a stylist.

“I’ve cut his hair several times. I had no idea it was the same Mr. Grant who comes in. The chances of all this happening are so freakish,” she said.