mail app is not working anymore since upgrading to 10.6.8: help

Mac OS X v10.6: Mail.app won’t open, or "You can't use this version of Mail…" alert after installing Security Update 2012-004:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4424?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Fellow user Grant Bennet-Alder offers this solution:

Some users have reported this problem if the Mail Application has been moved out of the top-level /Applications folder, or duplicated in another location.

When the Security Update is done, the old version of Mail is disabled.

The solution has been to:

1) make certain Mail is in the /Applications folder

2) There is no other copy anywhere else.

3) Once steps 1 and 2 have been done, Manually download and re-apply the Security Update (2012-004) by hand.

Security Update 2012-004 (Snow Leopard)

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If the Mail.app has been LOST, it can be re-installed by applying the 10.6.8 version 1.1 combo update. But this update is quite large and it is usually not necessary:

Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1

I am having the exact same problem ever since the software update installed this morning. I tried both of the fixes you recommend, downloading the Security Update 2012-004 you posted, as well as the 10.6.8 update combo v1.1 and still the old Mail.app is sitting in Applications and won't open. Is there something else I can try? In the meantime, I downloaded the Mozilla Thunderbird app just to be able to see my emails, but now all the folders I originally had setup within my mailbox are gone from that application so what should I try next? Thanks!

Nevermind, it's FIXED!!! As soon as I restarted everything for a second time, it came back. THANKS SO MUCH!!