Old letters and messages have a way of turning up under unexpected circumstances, whether it is a scuba diver finding a 95-year-old message in a bottle or a group of litter pickers finding messages written by young girls in 1966.
Something similar happened with Carl Skivington, a resident of Burton-upon-Trent town in England, when he found a letter from 1982 while renovating a room. What was interesting about the letter found by Skivington was that it was written and then purposely hidden by the writer, so that the letter is discovered by someone after several years. The letter kept inside a brown envelope was addressed simply to “To the finder of this letter”.
It was written by Deborah Stokes, then aged 14, on November 14, 1982. When Skivington read the letter with his wife, the couple was pleasantly surprised with its contents as the letter described life as it was in 1982.
The letter, which was concealed behind a cupboard, mentioned the 1982 prices of commodities and mentioned that the former Soviet Union president Leonid Brezhnev had died last week. Stokes also mentioned that her favourite band was The Boomtown Rats and said, “I wonder if they’re still around?”. The band broke up in 1986.
Stokes ended her letter on an optimistic note. “I hope the world is a better place by the time you see this. I like to think it will be. Yours, Deborah Stokes.”
Skivington, charmed by the letter, shared its photo on Facebook. Interestingly Stokes, who is now in her 50s, soon found his post and commented on it.
Staffordshire Live reported Stokes and Skivington soon met. While speaking to Staffordshire Live, Stokes said that she wrote the letter and hid it in the house after her father gave her the idea that the letter might act as a “time capsule” for people who will in future occupy the house. She was thrilled to find out that her father’s words came true.