Carpenter discovers a 'bottled message' hidden in a 150-year-old wall, then finds the woman who wrote it
Just 14 years old at that time, the writer is now a 61-year-old lady who had forgotten about her note until she came across the carpenter's post
Dakota Mohn must have felt like Sherlock Holmes when he stumbled upon an etching in the wood that left him buzzing with relentless curiosity. 30 miles south of Peoria, Illinois, in the quaint village of Green Valley, flames had charred up a 150-year-old home, Newbreak reported. As a carpenter, Mohn's job was to renovate what was left. Nearly camouflaged on a wall of wood was a mysterious marking that spelled “Note 9/29/1975” with an arrow pointing towards a hole. Bewildered, Mohn shoved his phone down into the hole and traced the mystery object: an orange bottle with a white cap.
Sharing his story on Facebook, Mohn's words ultimately reached the writer.
Mohn's skilled hands, still dressed in grey carpenter gloves, reached inside the hole and pulled out the relic. With the fingers of a detective, he traced the bottle and found a two-page note crumpled inside it. "Took it out and read the note. It was like this 14-year-old girl was standing there talking to us, took us back almost half a century right there," The Mirror quotes Mohn's confession to Star Journal.
“To whoever finds this: Today is Sept. 29, 1975. My name is Stephanie Herron. I live here with my mother, father (Earnest), Becky, and Valerie,” were the first lines scribbled on the note, a faded yellowish paper left creased by time. With the affection of a storyteller, the young writer had jotted down tiny details of her identity, from her family members to her neighbors, her mom’s pregnancy status, and the house she had been living in.
"My dad works the Chicago Northwestern Railroad. Green Valley has about 650 people. I am 14, Val is 16 and Becky is 12. I hope you have lots of happiness in this house," Stephanie continued.
"As far as we know, this house was made in 1872... Gerald Ford is the president. Mrs. Lay is our neighbor. Mum is pregnant, and the baby is due any day now,” the girl documented with the innocence of a childhood reporter.
Mohn confessed that he has found a lot of cool things in his career as a carpenter, but this one just “tops it off.” But the story didn’t end here. After his post caught people’s attention, the word broke out and somehow reached the writer, who is now a 61-year-old woman, Stephanie Herron Poit. She is married and a mother of five children. Sudden news about the forgotten note left her “shocked, absolutely shocked,” as she described to Star Journal. "Honestly, I forgot all about it. Life goes on; years go by."
Recollecting memories of that time, she said, Green Valley was a good place to grow up. Today, as she reflects on the tenderness of her childhood self and adjusts her mind to the newfound fame, teachers around the town are so inspired by her that they are encouraging their students to do the same and preserve their memories.
The Mirror found that along with some old coins Stephanie had hidden in another part of the house, Dakota also mentioned that the current owner wants to build a "shadow box" into their wall so the relic may be preserved exactly as it was found. "Both of us are going to leave a note in the wall for someone else to find in the future," Dakota concluded.
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