Evan Porter

Wendi Shaw, from New Jersey, has a unique hobby. She calls herself an "heirloom hunter." Every couple of months, she goes hunting through thrift stores, Goodwill, and online marketplaces for long-lost letters from a bygone era, and sometimes for diaries, photo albums and other personal effects. Mostly, she finds love letters sent home by soldiers during the war, sometimes dozens of them bunched together. They may have been donated by accident, lost, or accidentally sold at an estate sale before they wound up for sale as an antique. Reading them, she said, is incredibly enjoyable.

"The longing, the love, the descriptions of [overseas], and military life, war stories, the culture," Shaw said. "Taking the train, boats and buses. I get to read the stories from the [people] who actually wrote them. To me, it’s better than any book. I’m reading a story 1st hand."

Not only does Shaw find the letters, but she also preserves them in plastic sleeves and binders to keep them organized and prevent any further damage. And then she gets to work researching the original owners so she can return these incredible heirlooms to their rightful family.

Recently, Shaw made headlines after finding a stack of letters from 1944. The letters were written by a WWII Army veteran named David Cox, who was writing to his wife, Mary, from overseas.

Shaw posted in a Facebook group called All Things Greenville, where her plea got a huge response.

Shaw finds bunches of old love letters at thrift stores and online antique marketplaces.Photo Credit: Wendi Shaw

"Hi, I’m looking for the family of WW2 Vet David Cox -wife Mary Cox.... I just won/purchased this huge lot of letters from ShopGoodwill," the post read. "They are from 1944 WW2. I will be receiving them in about a week. I will be putting them in a binder w/plastic sleeves, reading them and try to find the family to return them. I’m guessing these were donated by accident. If they do not want them-which is their right- I will likely donate,make into a book-Something nice. Thank you for your time."

Dozens of people from the area chimed in with leads, advice, and well-wishes. Nearly 200 people shared the post with their own local network, and more leads poured in. Eventually, with the community's help, Shaw was able to return the letters.

Shaw organizes and preserves the letters in plastic sleeves.Photo Credit: Wendi Shaw

"I just assumed they were gone forever," said Cox's granddaughter, Victoria Golson, in an interview with Fox Carolina. "All the sudden on Facebook, they came back."

The letters, she said, had been stolen years ago from her grandparents' home. Shockingly, the thief had the decency not to destroy the letters, but to pass them on somehow, where they eventually found their way to Shaw.

Having the letters in her possession again meant everything. "It kind of helps bring [my grandparents] alive again," Golson said. "We'll have to celebrate them again."

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In another viral case, Shaw teamed up with NBC Bay Area to locate descendants of a San Francisco man named Arthur Olsen and his wife, Leota. After tips from NBC's audience, the letters made it home safely.

"They were so happy," Shaw told NBC Bay Area. "They said, 'Tell everybody thank you so much.' They couldn’t believe something this special from so long ago had come back to them."

Most of Shaw's efforts don't make national or even local news. She does the work because she enjoys the thrill of a good find and the rewarding feeling she gets when she's able to reunite a family with a piece of its history.

"Most families don't know these items even exist," she said. "They’re so happy to get them back. I get to give back family history."

Just recently, Shaw said she returned a WWI-era photo album from 1919 to an Australian soldier's family.

Shaw gets Thank You notes and letters from families grateful to have a piece of their history back.Photo Credit: Wendi Shaw

Old love letters continue to fascinate us, and they deserve to be preserved at all costs.

There’s no more intimate form of expression than the handwritten letter, especially one sent by a soldier during a war, unsure if he’d even live to see his love again. As Shaw noted, the passion and longing in old letters are unmatched by more modern forms of communication. It's one reason she loves reading them so much.

"Part of that mystique ... lay in the waiting," writes Barbara Newman, professor of Latin Language and Literature at Northwestern University. "Weeks might pass as a letter flitted slowly across land or sea, and the anxiety of anticipation heightened the joy of a longed-for reply."

It's a good reminder for all of us living in a modern culture that demands and rewards instant gratification.

For people who want to preserve the memory and legacy of their ancestors, what better heirloom could there possibly be? Letters like the ones Shaw finds and returns are not just documented history; they’re a glimpse inside the hearts and souls of people's grandmothers and grandfathers. But they get lost sometimes, as all physical things do. That's why the work Shaw does in her amazing little side hobby is so important and wonderful. The thank-you letters she gets from grateful families are proof of how much it matters.