By Associated Press Reporter PUBLISHED: 08:25 EST, 19 September 2013 | UPDATED: 09:58 EST, 19 September 2013 Pfc. John Eddington was fighting in Europe in World War II when he learned his wife gave birth to a daughter. From the battlefield he penned a letter, sweetly telling the little girl how much he loved her and longed to see her. But he never made it home, and the letter and his Purple Heart medal ended up in a box thousands of miles away from Peggy Smith, the daughter who was told nearly nothing about him. Years after a Missouri woman found the box of mementos and underwent an exhaustive search to find the daughter who grew up hesitant to ask about her father because it upset her mother, the letter and medal will be handed over to Smith on Saturday in what figures to be an emotional ceremony in Dayton, Nev., where Smith lives.
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Pfc. John Eddington was fighting in Europe in World War II when he learned his wife gave birth to a daughter
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He penned a letter to her, pouring his heart out and  sweetly telling her how much he loved her
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He never made it home, and the letter and his Purple Heart medal ended up in a box thousands of miles away from Peggy Smith, the daughter who was told nearly nothing about him
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A Missouri woman found the box many decades later and Smith will receive the medal and letter in a ceremony on Saturday
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