Grieving Strabane mum’s anguish over damaged envelope

A STRABANE mother has been left angry and distressed after receiving an empty envelope which she believes may have contained a message of sympathy, following her daughter’s death.

Last week Ballycolman resident Lisa Stewart picked up her morning post only to find that, in amongst the various bits and pieces, was an empty envelope. The only legible information on the rain-smudged paper was a post mark dated 11/11/22 and, to Ms Stewart’s dismay, she found that the envelope had been tampered with. Her distress was further compounded by the fact that, only three weeks prior to the postmark date, her daughter Toni had passed away suddenly. The grieving mum suspects that whatever the envelope had contained, may have been connected to her daughter.

Ms Stewart’s explained, “I got my mail last Wednesday as usual; mostly junk mail. I went through it when this envelope fell out. As I went to open it, I realised that there was nothing contained in the envelope and, to my dismay, the bottom of the envelope had been sliced open. Whatever was inside had been taken out – basically stolen. I don’t know why someone would do such a thing.”

She continued, “The envelope had a postmark from the An Post mailing centre in Athlone which suggests that the letter came from across the border. Toni (my daughter) travelled a lot and made friends wherever she went and I was receiving sympathy cards at the time of her death. My thoughts were immediately that one of Toni’s many friends had sent one after hearing about her passing. In addition some of the cards I was getting contained money to help with funeral costs and, if that was the case, they’ve stolen that as well.”

Toni (Maire) Stewart died suddenly last October and following her passing, a great many tributes were paid to the former Sigersons player who was said to give off, “a beautiful light.”

Mum Lisa added, “Thoughts leapt through my mind such as who sent it? If it was a card, how did they know Toni? What kind of kind message did they write? It also beggars belief that the envelope took six months to actually get this far. The card most likely did not originate in Athlone, and I appreciate that mail can get lost, but Athlone is only across the border; surely it could have reached Strabane quicker!”

This newspaper contacted both An Post and Royal Mail to try and get answers as to the length of time the letter remained outside its destination and its subsequent condition on arrival. While both were at pains to apologise for the delay, neither admitted fault for its condition.

Concluding, Lisa Stewart says the fact that she can’t get in touch with the sender is disappointing.

“I would love to find out who sent this so I can get in touch with them, acknowledge whatever was sent,” she said. “I wouldn’t like to think, if it was a sympathy card, that the sender believed I wasn’t grateful for their kindness.”