(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] This World War II veteran
has been holding onto this letter for 12 years.
He doesn't know that he's about to meet the little girl,
now all grown up, who wrote it.
- [Dee] So...
- What you say?
- [Dee] They're going to send someone here
to question you on this letter that you wrote.
On the girl that wrote the letter.
- Yeah.
- [Dee] So they want more information.
- So here she is.
- Hello.
- You're not the girl who...
- [Narrator] Turns out she hung onto the letter
she received from him too.
- Don't make me cry please.
- [Lady Holding Camera] So Frank, this is Dashauna Priest.
- [Dashauna] You wrote me that.
- [Dee] Is that the one we wrote back?
Oh you kept it? Oh boy, I gotta hug you.
- This isn't the girl is it?
- This is her!
- Honest to God, oh I love you so much kid.
- We looked for you for twelve years.
- [Narrator] Dashauna was nine years old
When she got the school assignment
to write a letter to a service member.
- I said, thank you for your sacrifices.
Thank you for saving us from Hitler.
And if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have freedom.
- Deeply moved by the letter,
Frank Grasberger and his wife Dee wrote back to Dashauna.
- I actually was the first one in the whole class
to get my letter back and they read my letter
to the class and then I took it home.
And my mom suggested that I put it away in my memory box.
- [Announcer] Frank held onto his letter too,
and shared the story with the staff
at has assisted living facility.
- I'm very proud of this and I hope
to show it to other people.
- [Announcer] The staff tracked down Dashauna
who had just recently re-read Frank's old letter.
- I cried, I ran in my mom's room.
I didn't even know my mom was awake,
but I ran into my mom's room and I was like,
Mom, oh my God, I just showed you the letter
that he had wrote me.
And now she's writing me,
telling me that she wants to set up something.
I was speechless because I didn't know
that anybody could just hold the letter
so near and dear to them.
I just want to know unless like, it was like my mom,
my mom holds stuff like that.
- [Announcer] A meeting was arranged to surprise Frank,
but he wasn't the only one who got a surprise.
- And when I first got there, I got there
in my uniform and nobody knew that I was in the military.
So I just showed up in uniform and they were all like,
are you, are you the girl that wrote the letter?
I was like, yeah.
He didn't think I was really the girl at first
and then I showed them my letter.
And then I started crying, he started crying.
Everybody started crying.
- [Narrator] Frank and his wife had tried to connect
with Dashauna for more than a decade
and finally got their chance.
- Did you ever think it would happen?
- No.
- I didn't either.
- You don't know how long, I pray every night
with this thing, I really do.
- I feel so special.
- Don't worry about it kid.
I feel the same way.
This is, this is a, I'm telling you.
This is a godsend, it really is.
- Now in the military herself,
Dashauna hopes the next generation keeps writing letters.
- It really means a lot just to see
that somebody appreciates us and what we do for the country.
So if you ever want to write somebody, I think you should,
because there's no telling how long they've been
without talking to their families
or anything like that.
So if you feel like you should
write somebody or you want to,
just extend the extra "Hey, I care about you," you should.
- Don't think I'm a softie, you guys.
(laughter)