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An empty mailbox is a sad sight. But for Stan Smurthwaite, that hasn’t been much of a problem lately. 

The 95-year-old resident of Elmira, Ont.  from coast to coast since he wrote a letter to �Ѳ������𲹲�’s last spring describing the joy he gets from opening mail.

“Even bills means someone is thinking of me!”

Smaro Kamboureli, a professor in the University of Toronto’s department of English in the Faculty of Arts & Science, was one of many to write to Smurthwaite. 

“It was in the middle of the lockdown in Toronto and I was profoundly aware of what it means to be completely isolated,” she told �Ѳ������𲹲�’s. “I wanted to reach out to an elderly man and say: ‘You matter. I can hear your voice.’”