When I was a young girl, maybe around 7 years old, I would walk down the street to buy milk and bread for my mum. In the group of shops nearby our house, was a paint store, with a large white stallion displayed in the window.
I loved looking at the horse, and dreaming about having it in my bedroom one day. So I wrote a letter. I remember writing the letter, and asking the owner if I could have the horse should they ever decide they didn’t want it any more. I recall mentioning that I would love and take great care of the horse, but I didn’t have much money I could give them and perhaps I could do chores to pay it off.
I never received a response… until November 2009, some 25 years later.
One day after work, in fact it was my birthday, I found a letter in the mailbox. To my great surprise it contained a photo of the horse from the paint shop, and a lovely letter from the owner stating that he had recently found my letter during the refurbishing of the shop, and felt sure that no one had ever replied to me.
He wasn’t the owner back when the letter was written, though had gone to trouble of hiring a private detective to find me and send me a reply. My faith in the world and humanity was immediately restored and I shed tears of joy at the memories of that particular time in my childhood.
I was amazed that someone would have gone to such trouble to track me down, over such a wonderful thing. It was an event in my childhood that I had never forgotten, and in fact something I had wondered about every now and then over the years up until the letter.
As I have moved around Australia considerably and recently married with a new name, it is remarkable that I was found, and in fact the private investigators thought the story was so lovely, they gave the store manager a discount.
The manager has informed me that he has framed my letter and it sits behind his desk in his office. I’ve been invited to pop in for a cup of tea next time I’m in Melbourne… and I can’t wait.
