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| Dashauna Priest, 21, with Frank Grasberger, 95. When Priest was in third grade, she wrote Grasberger a letter as part of a class project thanking veterans for their service. Grasberger sought to find Priest for 12 years, and finally met her in late July. (Vitalia Senior Residences at Strongsville) |
At the time, and in the years that
followed, she had no idea that the recipient of her letter would carry the note
with him everywhere he went, carefully folded in an envelope. “I’m never
without it,” said Frank Grasberger, now 95.
Grasberger, who lives in Strongsville, Ohio, was drafted into the military when he was 18 and spent nearly three years in Germany. He received Priest’s letter, which was part of a class project, while he was on an Honor Flight home from D.C. in 2009. Ever since, the letter has either been folded neatly in his pocket or tucked away beneath the seat of his wheelchair. Wherever Grasberger goes, the letter goes.
As years passed, Grasberger said he
"was determined to find the girl that wrote that letter."
On July 23, after a lot of searching,
Priest showed up at the retirement community dressed in her military uniform
with a dozen red roses in hand. Grasberger was told someone was coming to
interview him about the letter, but he had no idea Priest had finally been
found — or that she was there to meet him in person.
Dashauna Priest still recalls sitting in
her third-grade classroom 12 years ago in Lorain, Ohio, writing a heartfelt
thank-you letter to a World War II veteran whom she did not know.
At the time, and in the years that
followed, she had no idea that the recipient of her letter would carry the note
with him everywhere he went, carefully folded in an envelope.
“I’m never without it,” said Frank
Grasberger, now 95.
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| The letter Priest wrote 12 years ago, which Grasberger carries with him everywhere he goes. (Vitalia Senior Residences at Strongsville) |
Grasberger, who lives in Strongsville,
Ohio, was drafted into the military when he was 18 and spent nearly three years
in Germany. He received Priest’s letter, which was part of a class project,
while he was on an Honor Flight home from D.C. in 2009. Ever since, the letter
has either been folded neatly in his pocket or tucked away beneath the seat of
his wheelchair. Wherever Grasberger goes, the letter goes.
The handwritten note, printed on a sheet of
lined paper, imparts a simple message of gratitude: “Thank you for saving us
from Hitler. If it wasn’t for you, we would never have freedom. You made
freedom for us. You sacrificed your own life.”
Reading the letter for the first time more
than a decade ago, Grasberger was moved to tears.
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| Grasberger at age 18, when he was drafted into the military. (Vitalia Senior Residences at Strongsville) |
“It really tore my heart up when I saw it,”
he recalled. “I just couldn’t believe a child could write a letter about a
war.”
The message, plus the pencil and crayon
drawing of an American flag and Army helmet that accompanied it, resonated
deeply.
Although Priest, now 21, knew little about
the war or the veteran to whom she wrote the letter, “I always looked up to
people in uniform, so I took it really seriously,” she recalled.
She didn’t realize, though, that the
recipient would take her letter very seriously, too.
Grasberger was eager to connect with the kind girl and decided to draft his own note to her in response.
The letter Grasberger wrote in response to Priest. Until recently, he never knew whether she received it. (Dashauna Priest)
“You really made me feel very good about
fighting the war,” he wrote. “War is a terrible thing but if it helped to keep
you and many others ‘free’ it was well worth it.”
Grasberger’s wife, Delores, mailed the letter to Priest’s school, though the couple never got confirmation that she actually received it.
As years passed and they still hadn’t heard
anything, “I was determined to find the girl that wrote that letter,”
Grasberger said.
“We looked all over on the computer and
asked friends to keep their eyes open,” echoed his wife, adding that they
called the school several times, but staff members were unwilling to provide
the student’s contact information. Eventually, the school — Irving Elementary —
closed down.
Despite failed attempts to find her,
Grasberger continued to keep the letter close to him at all times. He prayed
with it at night.
“I look at it very often, and I show it to
other people,” he said.
Over the summer, Grasberger presented his
cherished letter to Jill Pawloski, the resident services director at Vitalia
Senior Residents at Strongsville. The Grasbergers — who have been married for
nearly 75 years and have two daughters, two grandchildren and two
great-grandchildren — reside there.
“He told me the story about how he received
the letter in 2009,” Pawloski said. Even 12 years later, “he was just so
touched that his service meant something to someone.”
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| The Grasbergers with Jill Pawloski, the resident services director at Vitalia Senior Residences at Strongsville, who found Priest and orchestrated the surprise. (Vitalia Senior Residences at Strongsville) |
Grasberger also expressed his
unrelenting wish to find the letter writer. Knowing how much it meant to him,
Pawloski resolved to track her down.
“I was just so moved that he was holding onto something so small that other people might have crumpled up and thrown away,” she said. “If anybody deserves this little moment, it’s definitely him.”
Grasberger was stationed in Germany during World War II. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge. (Vitalia Senior Residences at Strongsville)
She surfed on social media, and after a few quick searches, she found a profile on Instagram that seemed like a possible match, given the name and that the person looked to be about 21 years old.
Pawloski was unsure if she had the right woman, but “I decided to give it a shot and send her a private message,” she said. “I hit the nail on the head.”
Priest was stunned to see the message in her inbox. She knew exactly what letter — and veteran — the stranger was referring to.
“I was so excited,” said Priest, who went on to join the Army National Guard.
She, too, had reflected on the letter over the years, and she did, in fact, receive the reply from Grasberger. She keeps his letter safely stowed in a memory box, filled with other sentimental tokens from her childhood.
“I read it from time to time and think about him,” Priest said. “I always wanted to have a conversation with him because of everything he wrote in the letter.”
Pawloski invited Priest, who lives in Sandusky, Ohio, to come surprise Grasberger at his home. She was on board right away.
Priest showed up at Grasberger’s retirement community in late July — wearing her Army National Guard uniform — to surprise him. (Vitalia Senior Residences at Strongsville)
Only three days later, on July 23,
Priest showed up at the retirement community dressed in her military uniform
with a dozen red roses in hand. Grasberger was told someone was coming to
interview him about the letter, but he had no idea Priest had finally been
found — or that she was there to meet him in person.
When she walked in the room, Grasberger immediately exclaimed: “You’re not the girl?!”
The emotional surprise was captured on video and featured in a now-viral TikTok. When Grasberger finally grasped that he was with the young woman he had long been searching for, he turned to her, grabbed her hand and said: “I love you so much. I really do.”
“It seemed like she was my third daughter,” Grasberger explained. “That’s the feeling I had.”
They both broke down in tears. Grasberger showed her the letter she wrote 12 years ago, and likewise, she showed him the letter he wrote in response.
“This is a godsend,” Grasberger said, as they sat across from one another, clutching tissues. “I never thought I’d see you.”
Over the course of their nearly three-hour meeting, “I went through two boxes of Kleenex,” said Grasberger, who was an engineer for 32 years after leaving the military.
Delores Grasberger, 93, with her husband and Priest. The Grasbergers say they consider Priest to be a third daughter to them. (Vitalia Senior Residences at Strongsville)
While he reminisced about his time in
the war and his treacherous experience in the
Battle of the Bulge — the final major German military attack in
Western Europe — Priest, who is now a mother, told him about her 6-month-old
son, Kyro.
“He is so full of life,” Priest said of Grasberger. “He is just an amazing person.”
Since meeting for the first time in late July, their friendship has blossomed over regular phone calls, and Priest is planning to visit the Grasbergers again with her son in the coming weeks.
“She is one of our daughters. We looked 12 years for her, so we have to enjoy her now,” said Delores Grasberger, 93.
For Frank Grasberger, meeting Priest has been one of many miracles in his life, he said. At 95 years old, it was the one thing that was still missing.
When asked if he now feels complete having found his long-lost pen pal, Grasberger nodded, grinned widely, and said: “Oh yes. Very much so.”
Read the original
copy of this story on the Washington
Post
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