How would you feel if you got a real surprise from your loved one who is already dead long ago? Memories of the past, indeed, take us on a time-travel, filling our hearts with the joy of happy moments!
In 2014, John Murray, a builder, got an assignment to renovate a 1950s ranch house at North Phoenix Arizona. Where they unraveled a treasure of the past!
As the work progressed, they hit upon a bundle of papers and photographs hidden inside one of the walls. It was from the 1960s!
In ancient times, monks used to bury their scared scriptures, in the form of time capsules for future, to unravel and explore them. Sometimes it is also done for the later generation in the future to try and understand their ways of living and information from the past.
- Debbie Freedman /Facebook
“We’ve done hundreds of houses, but never found anything like this,” explained John. The capsule was created in 1966 by Bruce’s wife, Betty Klug, when she was 33 year old. She kept it a secret and did not share this information with him.
It was a gift for her husband, and with the intention of digging it out in the future she hid it on his birthday, September 27, in the year 1966, when they moved in the house for the first time.
After giving it some thought, John and his team decided that they needed to try to find the rightful owner of this very personal letter and accompanying photographs. They did a lot of tedious research and then at last they tracked down Bruce Klug, now nearly 80 years old and living not too far away in Scottsdale, Arizona. John made an appointment to meet him in person.
John and his team decided to handover the time capsule to the rightful owner of this beautiful treasure, and did research to locate Bruce. He was then living at Scottsdale, Arizona.
He took an appointment with Bruce, who was by now 80 years old.
- Debbie Freedman /Facebook
At the café where they met, John gave the envelope to Bruce – a lovely message from his past. He opened the envelope with his shaking hands, and was left awestruck after finding what was inside it.
He went into a time travel of his youthful days and gave a wide smile to show his happiness. He read on the message:
“The Vietnam War is still going on,” he read in Betty’s familiar handwriting. “Racial situation very serious. Boys have long hair resulting from the Beatle craze.”
“We had the best marriage,” recalled Bruce in an interview. “Not once did we argue about anything.”
He was incredibly grateful to John for going to all the trouble to find him and bring him this extraordinary gift from the past.
It can teach us all a lesson about appreciating the ones we love now while we have them. And cherishing the gestures of love that we receive, whether they’re from far gone days like this or from right now.
In the days of instant communication, when there seems hardly any real respect for relationships – this beautiful real life expression of love becomes even more meaningful!