Nonna was waiting by her back door when I got home from work Thursday. The smile on her face told me something good was happening. As I stepped toward her, she shot her hand out and gave me an envelope. She was quivering with excitement.

“Open it! I can’t wait another minute,” she said. “I’ve been dying to see what it says since Bob left it this morning.”

Bob is our letter carrier. He started delivering mail when he was right out of high school. He’d ...