ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Neither Linda LeClair nor her brother, John Brigden, have ever been to Newfoundland and Labrador, but cards bound from her address in Langley, B.C., to his mailbox in Clacton-On-Sea in the U.K. took a trip to St. John’s in a case of mail gone curiously astray.
The cards — with Brigden’s address perfectly written on the envelopes — were received by Clare Eagar, a St. John’s resident who coincidently is British, but has lived in Canada for decades.
“They never, ever should have come in my mailbox,” said Eagar, who was baffled at how the mistake would happen.
She didn’t open the cards, but on the back of one envelope — addressed to Brigden and his wife, Linda — was written “Happy Anniversary,” while the other to Brigden said, “Happy Birthday.”
When The Telegram tracked down Brigden, he was gobsmacked.
“That’s my sister!” he said, of the mailer’s address. “Has it got England on the bottom of the envelope?”
When told it did indeed, he said, “Oh God,” and quickly added how very kind it was of his sister to mail the cards.
“Yeah, heard of (Newfoundland.) Don’t know anybody who lives there,” Brigden said.
John and Linda Brigden celebrate their 56th wedding anniversary in mid-September, and he turns 76 later this month.
During the chat, in which The Telegram wished him happy birthday and happy anniversary until the cards finally reach him, Brigden revealed the backstory of his Canadian roots.
He didn’t even know LeClair was his sister until the early 2000s.
Her father, Lyle Young, was a Canadian army soldier from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., who served in the Second World War through almost its entirety — with training in 1939 and duty overseas from 1940-45.
According to LeClair, it appears Young met Brigden’s mother, a nurse at a military hospital outside London, when he was injured.
Brigden’s mother would not divulge his father’s name to her son for many years.
LeClair said that in the early 2000s, her family responded to a tiny item posted in a Legion magazine by Brigden, seeking information on Young.
By that time, said LeClair, who was born after the war, she and her niece had learned through redacted letters in his military file that Young, a Military Medal recipient for bravery, had an English son three years older than her, but younger than her Canadian brothers, who were all born before the war.
DNA tests eventually confirmed the connection.
But LeClair said it wouldn’t have been necessary, as the truth was evident when Brigden came to meet his family 16 years ago.
“When he stepped off the plane, I knew he belonged to my dad. There was no denying it,” LeClair said.
He was almost identical to one of her brothers, she said, and all three got to meet him in the happy reunion, but have since died and Brigden is her last surviving sibling. She has visited him in England as well.
LeClair said she thinks her father, who died 50 years ago and never told his family of Brigden’s existence, would have ultimately wanted them to know each other. LeClair said she doesn’t know if he ever confessed to his wife or how exactly he responded to the letters from Brigden’s family.
LeClair noted the war saw soldiers leave their families for several years, and they did not know if they would survive military action, so Young’s wartime romance was not unique. But the mores of the time often kept the liaisons and any resulting children secret for decades, if they ever were revealed.
“When he stepped off the plane, I knew he belonged to my dad. There was no denying it." — Linda LeClair
“It’s not (Brigden’s) fault. He deserves to know his own history,” LeClair said.
Both LeClair and Brigden, who talk all the time, got a kick out of hearing about the stray mail.
“Somebody up above is playing a joke on us,” LeClair said.
Eagar said the only possible thing she can think of that got the mail to her by mistake is that she and Brigden share a word in their addresses, and someone at the post office must have mistook “St. John’s Road” for St. John’s, NL.
That’s despite the fact that the envelope clearly states Clacton-On-Sea in Essex, England, as the destination, complete with a postal code that is very different from Canada's postal codes — seven characters as opposed to six.
“This really shows how ultra-efficient the post office is,” quipped Eagar.
She said she would drop the cards off at the post office herself to make sure they get where they’re supposed to be.
“And I will write 'England' in great big letters,” Eagar said.
Twitter: @BarbSweetTweets
