Octavia Dixon-Lawless couldn’t wait to tell her Nana and Papa how she taught a 14-year-old friend to do a back flip.
It was her first time teaching somebody the skill and when her sister tried to teach the same girl, “she almost broke her nose.”
So the nine-year-old Maple Ridge resident grabbed a piece of paper and a purple marker, because she couldn’t find a pencil, and started writing to her grandparents in Prince Edward Island.
Octavia started the letter by greeting her Nana and Papa.
Then she told them about the back flip, adding that she really, really missed them. The Albion elementary student then gave instructions to flip to the back where she added that she wants to go to Paris and France.
She put the letter in a blue envelope and sealed it with a pink bow sticker, writing at the bottom, “P.S. I love you.”
Her father Marc Lawless had just stepped out to get some groceries when his daughter called. She didn’t know the address.
“I don’t really know it off hand, but I know it’s 688 Baker Street,” replied her father, telling her to wait till he got home to finish off the letter.
But Octavia finished it herself, addressing the envelope simply to Nana and Papa from Octavia, with the address 685 Baker Street, Summer, P.E.I., with no postal code or stamp.
She walked across the street to the postbox and mailed the letter.
When her father returned home, he didn’t think much of it. He asked her if she wanted to send the letter and she said she already did. He gently suggested the letter might not make it to its destination. But thanks to Canada Post, the letter made it from one end of the country to the other two weeks later.
Joe Lawless and his wife Nancy, who live in Summerside, P.E.I., were so surprised by the letter that he went to the Canada Post office to thank them for the unexpected delivery.
The manager there told him that the letter had gone through seven different distribution centres before arriving at the correct destination.
Canada Post, in turn, sent Octavia a book of stamps and two postage paid envelopes decorated with colourful cartoon cats.
This is not Octavia’s first time sending a letter through the mail. In fact, she likes to write to her aunts, uncles and cousins who live in the U.S. and Canada.
Octavia’s grandparents are good at writing back.
“Dear Octavia,” the return letter started.
“Nana and Papa were so glad to get a letter from you. It made us very happy that you were thinking of us. Your dad sent us a video of you and Ophelia doing back flips. You both are very good at it. You must be very proud of yourself to help a 14-year girl do a back flip,” said the letter.
They attached two copies of the local paper in P.E.I. that first featured the story of her letter and said they looked forward to receiving a painted picture from their granddaughter before signing off, Love to All, Nana and Papa, xxoo.
Octavia has her painting all ready to go, this time with the full address and a colourful stamp.