Sometimes, all it takes is a little spring cleaning to uncover an interesting piece of family history. TikToker @clopernicus has been going through old family documents in an effort to preserve them.
She is in the process of scanning and categorizing everything. Among the items, there was an 1888 atlas of the world, an old Bible, and a letter from January 20, 1909.
She did not expect to find as much family drama as she did. It just goes to show that dysfunctional relationships are not unique to the age of the internet.
In the letter, a relative of hers wrote to another relative about how she caught her husband kissing a female cook onboard a ship to Argentina.
The first stop of this couple’s journey was in Kansas City. From there, they changed train cars and proceeded to Chicago. They spent some time in the city and rode a boat on the lake.
From Chicago, they went on to New York City. They only had two days to go shopping and see the city. On September 11, they boarded a ship headed to South America. Her husband flirted with the cook.
When she caught her husband kissing the cook, she became very angry and hit him over the head. For the rest of the journey, she had no more trouble because he was in bed recovering from the blow.
In Rio de Janeiro, her husband had nearly made a full recovery. While they were out seeing the city, he saw a streetcar coming toward them and tried to step in front of it, but she grabbed him by the ear and pulled him out of the way.
“I gently got him off by grabbing him by the hair and one ear and pulling him with all my strength,” @clopernicus narrated the letter.
“Thus, heaven was robbed of another angel. He fell with such force that he broke his nose and split his mouth across to the left ear.”
Afterward, the police arrested him. She pretended not to know what had happened. The next day, she went to the police station and forgave him.
They went to a nearby hotel, booked rooms, and spent the night. The letter took another surprising turn. The next morning, she woke up, and her husband was gone.
When she couldn’t find her husband anywhere, she decided to start a business and buy a car and a fur coat with the $300 in her possession. She also wrote a postscript, saying, “If you see my Henry, tell him to come home.”
The postscript left @clopernicus confused. She wondered why the woman would want her husband back after he abandoned her in a foreign country. Overall, the letter is a priceless piece of family history that @clopernicus will remember fondly forever.
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By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
