- Staff
- #1
So we just bought a house, and you know those stories about how people find valuable things hidden in strange places? Well I found something priceless...
The previous owners both worked for the government; he trained police in anti-terrorism, she was in IT for the CIA. She’s in her 60s and retired in N.C., he’s deceased… by his own hand. And that’s where it begins for me.
I was cleaning out the fireplace (which wouldn’t work for some reason) trying to get the pilot light to fire up, when I noticed what I assumed to be a tiny corner of a business card sticking out from between the fireplace and the brick around it. Curiosity got the better of me so I grabbed a screw driver and some needle-nose pliers and began to work it out of the gap that was barely wide enough for the card. When I finally was able to pull the card out it turned out to be a photo of the couple from the 1970s. Okay, whatever. But, on the back was a touching good-bye note to the wife - a suicide note - dated the day before his body was found in the woods outside of town. I talked to the neighbors and got the full story that he was sick and in a lot of pain. He was also known for refusing treatment even as small as taking aspirin, so he went out on his own terms.
I was holding the last thing he ever wrote. It’s my opinion that he purposely disabled the fireplace, knowing that someone would have to dig around and eventually find the note. I spent most of the weekend in a daze.
I got her new address and mailed it to her yesterday, along with a note explaining how I discovered it and included my phone number.
Surreal.
The previous owners both worked for the government; he trained police in anti-terrorism, she was in IT for the CIA. She’s in her 60s and retired in N.C., he’s deceased… by his own hand. And that’s where it begins for me.
I was cleaning out the fireplace (which wouldn’t work for some reason) trying to get the pilot light to fire up, when I noticed what I assumed to be a tiny corner of a business card sticking out from between the fireplace and the brick around it. Curiosity got the better of me so I grabbed a screw driver and some needle-nose pliers and began to work it out of the gap that was barely wide enough for the card. When I finally was able to pull the card out it turned out to be a photo of the couple from the 1970s. Okay, whatever. But, on the back was a touching good-bye note to the wife - a suicide note - dated the day before his body was found in the woods outside of town. I talked to the neighbors and got the full story that he was sick and in a lot of pain. He was also known for refusing treatment even as small as taking aspirin, so he went out on his own terms.
I was holding the last thing he ever wrote. It’s my opinion that he purposely disabled the fireplace, knowing that someone would have to dig around and eventually find the note. I spent most of the weekend in a daze.
I got her new address and mailed it to her yesterday, along with a note explaining how I discovered it and included my phone number.
Surreal.
