The owner of a secondhand bookstore in a northern English market town was sorting through a pile of old books when an envelope fell from one. Inside was an undated letter and a faded photo of a woman holding a little girl on her lap. The letter was addressed to “Bethany (My tiny treasure)” and signed “Mam.” It said if Bethany was reading it, it meant the letter’s author had died.
Gordon Draper’s eyes welled. These were a dying woman’s last words to her child. He had to find Bethany.
He started with the local newspaper. The Northern Echo ran the story of the lost letter, which promised the little girl that her mom would always be with her, on its front page last weekend.
Meanwhile, Bethany Gash, now 21 and a mother herself, was on Facebook about 10 miles away when a close family friend messaged her to check out the article. As she read her mother’s words, words she thought had been lost to her forever, she said she thought she must be dreaming.
Gash was only 4 when her mother died of cystic fibrosis in 1999. Five years later, her family moved to a new home and the letter, tucked away in the pages of a book for safekeeping, was inadvertently donated.
Gash said she remembers unpacking and looking for the letter, and then frantically searching through everything in hopes it was there.
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