WWII letter returns to veteran's family

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - The story starts at an antique store near Turkey Run State Park.

"We were out shopping one day, just treasure hunting, as Mom calls it," Kallie Lewis said.

Kallie Lewis and her mother, Kim, share a passion for history.

Kallie always heads straight for the book section.

"I was just looking through the books, and was like Mom, this is so cool," Kallie said.

In the history book's cover, she spotted something strange, a letter from World War II made out to Cleta Aldridge.

It was written to notify her that her son, Victor Aldridge Junior was wounded in battle overseas.

Dedicated to find who this letter belonged to, they got on the computer to begin their long search, with many dead ends.

"That didn't work out, couldn't find anything. So I tried looking up the guy who had wrote the letter, and that didn't work out either," she said.

However, finally...

"We saw the headstone and ended up looking at the phone book that doesn't even have a cover on it and found Victor Aldridge Jr.'s phone number in there," Kim Lewis said.

They found that Cleta and her son, have passed.

However, Victor's wife still lives here in the Wabash Valley.

"Mom gave her a call, and she wasn't home, so she left a message, and she ended up calling back, and it ended up being her," Kallie said.

"I was gobsmacked, honestly, I, it's like a voice from the past, and when she told me the date on the post mark, I kind of put two and two together," Victor Aldridge Jr.'s widow Sandra Aldridge said.

In this story's final chapter, on this day, they met to return the letter.

"It's their family and that's a part of their life, and it just needed to go back to them," Kallie said.

"You don't know where the past is going to come up and meet you, it's interesting, it's wonderful, it's life," Sandra said.

It gives Kallie and her mom a tale worth far more than the dollar they paid.

"I met this lady and her husband was a real American hero, and it's just really cool," Kallie said.

Victor Aldridge Jr. was a purple heart recipient and a bat boy for major league baseball, where his father played.