Every time Gerard Dunn turns around, he’s answering the door to accept another delivery of mail.
“I think we topped the record, with the number that we have,” says his letter carrier, as Dunn examines a mailbag jammed with tightly-packed cards and letters.
“There’s 500 there,” says Dunn, himself a former Canada Post mail handler and supervisor.
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From a corner of his living room, his daughter, Miriam, is astonished. “That’s marvellous.”
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It was Miriam Dunn who touched off a growing campaign of kindness, by inviting people on Twitter to send cards to her father for his upcoming 92nd birthday.
She hoped it might ease his transition, after his wife of more than six decades, Ellen, passed away.
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“I really just thought it would be a nice gesture for dad to receive a few pieces of mail, even it were from strangers.”
The campaign has caught fire.
In just a few days, the pieces of mail are fast-approaching 1,000.
“I don’t believe it. Oh my Lord,” laughs Gerard, as Miriam empties stacks of cards and letters onto his couch.
“I really don’t know what to say, other than I’m amazed and I’m so thankful. From around the world! I can say it. It sounds like you’re exaggerating like the devil, but you’re not.”
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Dunn was a remarkable man before any of this happened. The father of seven, ever full of energy and wit, does not even let a recently broken arm prevent him from treating guests to some inspired piano playing.
He is also able to read the avalanche of mail himself, without the use of eyeglasses. With each passing day, birthday wishes are flowing in, from an ever-widening circle of strangers.
“So, happy birthday to you from the South of France. Love, Susan Bernard and Eros, my dog,” Dunn reads from one letter.
For a man who lives alone, (with frequent contact from his children), cards and letters were always a highlight of his day.
Now, they are large bundles of joy that reaffirm his faith in humanity.
“This is something special going on in the world, and these people are all involved in it. They wanted to get in on it.”
Dunn is determined to read every single piece of mail. That’s not easy. It took a team of three family members four hours just to go through one day’s delivery. And the stacks are only getting bigger.
“There doesn’t seem to be any end. Don’t ask me what I expect for tomorrow, because I don’t know. I’m mesmerized.”
And, if we can add a P.S. to that, awestruck by the positive side of social networking.
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