Arizona woman finds a sweet letter and searches for the owner.
Going thrift store shopping is almost always an adventure, even when you leave with nothing. There's something about going through donated items that have a history all their own that makes you feel connected to the larger world. Plus, you get a little giddy when you find a good deal on something you didn't know you always needed.
But sometimes a piece of someone else's history you find is impactful in an unsuspecting way. A woman in Arizona found herself with one such rare treasure on one of her recent trips to Goodwill. Rose Farmer was perusing the aisles of discarded treasures when she came across the book section and noticed a book that an older woman picked up had lost a slip of paper. The paper turned out to be an encouraging letter from a father to his son tucked into the pages of "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers.
Farmer decided to ask the woman if she could purchase the book the letter escaped from, which started the journey of locating the intended recipient of the sweet note.
When Farmer opened the note, it read, "Believe Trent—Believe," with the second occurrence of "believe" underlined twice for emphasis, it appears. "You are loved and respected! So let's get going, the ride may be bumpy but we will get there. When you believe in yourself as much as I do you will be there," the handwritten note reads. It is simply signed, "Dad."
Clearly, whoever "Dad" is, he's extremely encouraging and hoping his son is able to see his own potential. There's no other information that indicates what Trent was going through that prompted the note, and there was no addressed envelope to know where the letter was supposed to end up. But the note written in bubbly cursive inspired Farmer to find the person who wrote it or the one it's supposed to go to, even though there isn't anything identifiable on the letter.
Book cover next to handwritten letter
Broadcast News YouTube screenshot
In the age of social media, anything is possible, and Farmer knows that, which is why she took to the private Facebook group "Go Gilbert" to see if people knew who these people could be. So far, no one has claimed the note, but it seems to already be touching people's lives.
"It just received so many likes and comments from people," Farmer told Fox News Digital. "Someone said, 'I’m not Trent, but this note spoke to me.’ Someone else said, ‘My son's name is Trent and it's as if this note was written just for him.’ Everybody just seemed really touched by it."
Farmer told 12News that one comment in the group read, “I feel like maybe all of us were moved by the note are indeed a Trent, thanks for sharing the love note.”
The note was written on stationery from Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa in California, but outside of that small clue, the determined woman has no other clues to rely on. Here's hoping the power of social media does its thing and brings the writer of the letter or the intended recipient forward. It would wrap things up with a cute little bow if the now-invested internet users know that Trent finally received his letter.
So many people could use the encouragement handwritten on that piece of paper, and now that it's public, hopefully the people that need to see it most will find it.
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