On March 31, 1952, Dick Hauck sent a love letter to his future wife, Arlene. The couple had written back and forth on a nearly daily basis while Dick was serving in the U.S. Army. But this letter, in which Dick formally proposed marriage to Arlene, never reached its final destination until last week.
"I had a box of letters from him," Arlene Hauck tells CNN affiliate, KARE11.
Contract workers found Dick's letter while they were performing renovations in Arlene's childhood home. They gave the letter to the couple, who are both still alive and married to each other, nearly 60 years after Dick first proposed.
And unlike in the 2001 film "Amelie," this decades-old love letter is for real.
"The whole thing brings back memories," Dick told KSDK, while fighting back tears. He was just 21-years-old at the time he wrote the letter, in which he described the wedding ring he had purchased for Arlene. She wears the ring to this day.
"I got your ring today, I sure hope you will like it," the letter reads. "I wish I could have gotten it long ago darling."
A few weeks after the letter was sent, Dick returned from the Army and delivered the engagement ring to Arlene in person. They were married that June.
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