A father's love survives the ages
Behind this painting, signed "F. Godfrey," a woman found a 1936 letter from a father to his daughter Dolores. The discovery was made 30 years ago after the woman found the painting in an antique mall in Coeur d'Alene. Now the woman is trying to find the Godfrey family to return the letter and painting to the rightful owners.
Courtesy photo
In this 1936 letter, a father shares messages of love for his daughter Dolores to treasure when she grows up. The letter was found sealed in the back of a painting that was in a Coeur d'Alene antique mall 30 years ago. The collector who found it now wants to return the letter and painting to the family.
The yellowed paper is dated "June 1, 1936." It's addressed to "My beloved Daughter, Dolores."
"Here we are at your ninth birthday. You have just been promoted into the fourth grade. My lovely girl is getting older and bigger every day. You are just starting your lessons on the piano. Mother is taking lessons in singing, and lessons on the guitar. Daddy is taking painting lessons. Darlene has finished her kindergarten school, and is ready to go to the first grade next fall. My! What a learned family we are getting to be!"
Long before social media and the digital age, this doting father wrote a beautiful letter with love in every stroke of his pen. The letter includes a poem he scribed when Dolores was four days old, on May 2, 1927.
These artifacts of a daddy's love were found tucked in the back of a scenic campsite painting, signed by the father, "F. Godfrey," and found by antique collector Diane Kasparek 30 years ago.
Kasparek is now trying to find the family of Dolores and F. Godfrey so the letter and painting can be returned and treasured as a part of their family history.
"It matters to me because one, his daughter Dolores did not find that letter, and I think he wrote it to help her in his passing, the way I understood the letter," Kasparek said last Monday. "And I think there might be a living relative who would like to have that in their family."
Kasparek, who lives on Orcas Island, Wash., said she found the painting in an antique mall in Coeur d'Alene when she visited in the early '90s to help a friend move antiques out of a space she rented.
"We loaded the U-Haul and another gal said, 'You can have anything you want for helping out,'" Kasparek said.
She chose the painting and took it back to her motel room, noticing wall paper attached to the back.
"I just removed it and there was this letter, this lovely note to his daughter," she said. "I didn't know why anybody would seal up the back of it expecting anybody to find it."
She contacted the antique dealer to find the original owners, but it had been bought at an estate sale and the original owners were unknown. She doesn't know the name of the antique mall, she just remembers it was big.
Through the years, Kasparek has made professional scans of the painting and the pages and sent them to new fathers as a gift to celebrate their new role in life.
"There this letter was, just lying flat against the painting, no envelope," she said. "I was so touched by it, I hung it up in my home for years."
Kasparek, now 75 and retired, was cleaning out her studio and decided it's time to return the painting and letter to the rightful owners.
"I just figured, somebody's got to know the Godfreys," she said.
Email dweeks@cdapress.com or call 208-664-8176 x 1111 with information to help reunite these items with this family.
