Daughter finds lost letter from father, victim of Covid, on Beatles album

Like many victims of Covid-19, Brazilian Karlo Schneider was unable to say goodbye to his family, a native of Rio Grande do Norte. Unlike many, however, he left a message that reached his family a year after his death.

He said goodbye to his wife and three children one morning in February 2021. Feeling ill after arriving at the hotel where he worked, he decided to stay there to avoid contact with them.

Schneider, then 40, died a month later. But he left for loved ones letters that came into his hands a year after an intense search.

The idea for the letters had come up in 2006, when Schneider was about to become a father, and he thought about writing a few lines for his firstborn to read when she turned 15.

A Beatles fan, Schneider kept the letters amid his collection of records by the English band, where he forgot them over time.

“He loved those things,” said his widow, Alcione, who remembers him as a romantic.

“Reunion”

Some 14 years after writing the letters, in 2020, Schneider decided to sell part of his treasure to earn income after losing his job, like many, by the impact of the pandemic. His collection had about 550 LPs and he ended up selling 400. And the cards went along with it.

In 2021, things seemed to get better. Schneider got another job at a hotel in Mossoró, 280 km from the capital of Natal, where he lived. And the family moved there.

But the second wave of the pandemic, which then reached a moving average of 3,000 dead in 24 hours, dashed hopes and ended Schneider’s life in a matter of days.

Almost a year passed before Alcione remembered the letters kept in one of the records sold. She was helped in her search by Schneider’s friends, who posted a video on Beatles fan forums that went viral.

In September, Alcione received a call from a man who said he had bought vintage records at the time, but had not yet opened them. He was going through a depression after losing a child, also because of Covid.

In December, the two met and Alcione received a copy of John Lennon’s “Imagine” with three letters inside.

Barbara, Schneider’s first child, opened the letter last month, when she turned 15, as the sender wanted.

“He said a lot of things (in the letter). He said he was in love with my mother, talked about the Beatles, asked if Paul McCartney was still alive”, said Bárbara between laughter and tears.

The letter ends abruptly, like his life, when Schneider’s blue pen has run out of ink.

Barbara felt as if her father was reading to her. “We couldn’t say goodbye. So, it was a moment for us to see each other again. It was like a reunion with him”, said the young woman.