ROYAL OAK, Mich. (WXYZ) — On a hot July day at Oakview Cemetery in Royal Oak, Liza Altenburg read to us part of a letter she wrote to her late father.
It began, "Dad, I see and hear more of you in Ryan, your grandson, everyday."
Altenburg told us the passing of her father, a piano player and larger than life jokester, was sudden and unexpected.
"I lost my dad in 2015, it was really just a chaotic, traumatic time in my life," said Altenburg. "I always talked to my dad on the way home from work, so I still will get in my car now and reach for my phone to call my dad. I can’t take his name out of my phone because I just can’t bear to do it."
For Altenburg and her son, those brief moments when they reach to pick up the phone re-opens old wounds.
The grief, for a moment, is fresh.
It's why Altenburg needed to create the new mailbox at Oakview Cemetery where people can come and send letters to deceased loved ones — Letters to Heaven.
When asked if she believes the mailbox would have helped her in the early stages of grieving, Altenburg said; "I think so. I think especially for my son it would have been very helpful to have had him send letters, send pictures that he took, because my dad taught him how to shoot a camera. I’m envisioning, I’m hoping, that we have kids coming and sending pictures to grandma, or grandpa, or mom, or dad, or whoever it was in their life that they would write those letters or those pictures for."
Grief experts say that talking to a passed loved one is a healthy way to cope with the pain of losing them.
For Altenburg, she talks to her dad about her son and his grandson Ryan.
Her letter to her father ended with, "I know that you’re keeping heaven entertained with music and laughter. Please save me a seat next to you on the piano bench."
Altenburg said that any letter submitted to the mailbox with be read by no one on earth, they have a respectful and private way of storing them.
