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82-year-old library book is finally returned with this heartbreaking message found inside

82-year-old library book is finally returned with this heartbreaking message found inside
San Antonio Public Library

After 82 years, a library book was finally returned to the San Antonio Public Library - but with it came a heartbreaking letter.

Back in July 1943, the book titled “Your Child, His Family, and Friends” by marriage and family counsellor Frances Bruce Strain was checked out. Fast forward over eight decades, and the library confirmed someone from Oregon returned the long overdue book in June that remained in "good condition" all this time.

The contents of the book was all about how parents can help their children navigate personal relationships, and back then was reviewed by different outlets, with The Cincinnati Enquirer calling it "a “complete guidebook to the personal relationships of the child with his family and the outside world," while Strain was described by The New York Times as having a "wise, sensitive, but unsentimental presentation of sex education," as per Associated Press.

What did the letter say?

In the letter, the person signed with the initials P.A.A.G. and wrote, "After the recent death of my father, I inherited a few boxes of books he left behind."

The book, along with the letter it came with.San Antonio Public Library

To put this duration into perspective, the person’s father was 11 years old when this book was checked out, so where has it been all this time?

“The book must have been borrowed by my Grandmother, Maria del Socorro Aldrete Flores (Cortez),” the person wrote. “In that year, she transferred to Mexico City to work at the US Embassy. She must have taken the book with her, and some 82 years later, it ended up in my possession.”

How much has the book racked up in overdue fines?

A book that is overdue for all these years will have racked up quite the late fee, something which the person mentioned in the letter.

“I hope there is no late fee for it because Grandma won’t be able to pay for it anymore," they wrote.

Luckily for them, the library got rid of overdue fines in 2021 (phew), but we do know how much is owed if it were still in place.

That's thanks to the inside cover of the book, which has a stamp declaring the fine for overdue books was three cents a day.

This adds up to almost $900 (not accounting for inflation).

But when accounting for this, three cents back then is equivalent to 56 cents today, as per the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics’ Inflation Calculator, meaning it would total over $16,000 in 2025.

Where is the book now?

The book is set to be displayed at the city’s central library through the month of August, and afterwards will be donated to the Friends of San Antonio Public Library and sold to benefit the library.

What is the record for the longest overdue book?

Meanwhile, the record for the longest overdue book is a staggering 288 years.

That's right, in 1956, a library book was returned to Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, England, after it was initially borrowed way back in 1668, and no fine was implemented.

Elsewhere, 35 books that will change how you see the world, and Archaeologists discover the lost 'Book of the Dead' buried for thousands of years.

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