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Rio Linda Man Finds Lost Journal With Heartfelt Letters From Grandma To Granddaughter

RIO LINDA (CBS13) – A Rio Linda man says he found a lost journal filled with emotional letters from a grandmother to her granddaughter.

"People can look at it and be like oh it's just book; it's just a diary; it's just pages. But it's what's written in it," Luis Martinez said.

Martinez found the journal a couple of weeks ago in a truck set for the auction block at the car auction facility he works.

"There was a bunch of trash in it and this was sitting right there on the seat. I grabbed it and started looking through it," Martinez said.

Page by page, he found out the journal belongs to a Lola Maxine writing to someone irreplaceable.

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"She starts writing to Arabella Raine, which is her granddaughter," Martinez said.

The words cut deep in all the right ways.

"It just starts with, 'My dear little hummingbird, I felt like writing to you today. Although we are miles apart, I hope can feel healthy for a while so I can write several letters to you. So, you can read them when you're a teenager,'" Martinez said.

Martinez thinks the woman who put pen to paper has passed considering she was 91 when she was still writing the letters.

"Here, it's 4-3-13. It says, 'Hi sweetie, oh how lonesome I am to see my baby. I even dream about you,'" Martinez said.

He found phone numbers in the journal trying to return it to the family. He called the numbers for a Los Angeles area code and a South Carolina phone number. He didn't get an answer from the LA number and the South Carolina number didn't know of a Lola Maxine or Arabella Raine.

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"I'm hoping that someone actually sees this and they're like 'I know who that is,'" Martinez said.

Martinez said reading this journal has taught some life lessons.

"Reading this has made me thought about it more. You know, like, I wish had done a lot more for my grandmother," Martinez said. "But hey, I can do more for the people who are still with me."

He may not be able to turn the page and find the family of Lola Maxine, but Martinez still has hope he can close the book on his search.

"She's probably seen pictures of her grandmother. But, for her to actually get words, something physical from her? That would be really cool," Martinez said.

Martinez told CBS13 if he isn't able to find the granddaughter or the grandmother's family, he'll keep the diary. He said it wouldn't feel right to throw away such heartfelt and loving words.

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