A soldier's letter wrote on the battlefield for Mother's Day reaches his family more than 100 years later

"How I wish I would arrive tomorrow and surprise you. Who would be happier? You or me? Probably me," Carl Howe, an American soldier who fought in France during World War I, wrote from the battlefield in a letter to his mother, which was returned to the family after an investigator found it for sale more than 100 years later on the eBay platform.

Howe, wrote the letter on May 10, 1919 on the occasion of Mother's Day and in it he told his family that he longed to return home.

"Not an hour of the day goes by without me thinking of you," he wrote, "the many good pieces of advice you have given me have always been a shining star to follow."

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The soldier confesses that it is not a usual letter because, on that date, he wanted to tell him "with words from heart to heart". But he also tells her common matters, talks to her about the battle and says goodbye telling her that she is "the most beloved little mother in the world".

Roi Mandel, director of research at the online genealogical platform MyHeritage, found it 100 years later at an auction on the eBay trading platform, he told USA Today.

"We read the letter and it was just beautiful, it seemed obvious to us that we had to return it to its rightful owner," said Mandel, who bought it for $150. "It should be in good hands, not sold on eBay," he told the newspaper.

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Mandel began the search for the descendants of the soldier with some details such as the address and name of the recipient. He found Howe's military record and marriage documents indicating he married about six months after writing the letter.

After the war he worked as a mining engineer and died at age 39 from tuberculosis that had a "probable origin in [military] service," MyHeritage details, "probably contracted it while fighting in Europe."

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Investigators found Howe's only daughter, who died in 2017, and her children, including Jan Bellis-Squires, who resides in Oregon. The letter was returned to her in April. "For me it is a treasure to be able to see the handwriting and read the words that my grandfather, whom I never met, wrote to his mother on Mother's Day," she said.

His grandfather, he said, seems to be "a bright, kind man" whom he would have liked to meet.

For Mandel it is a happy ending "because it is a piece of history that returned to its place." "It is the kind of treasure that may not have material value, but it has sentimental and above all historical value. It will be passed on to future generations," he told the newspaper.