PC: Washington Post
As one of 27 grandchildren herself, she said she had never felt special growing up. She retrieved it in 2016 and took it to D.C., to Michigan for a graduate degree in educational leadership and policy, and back to D.C., where she settled in Mount Pleasant in 2019. She is almost certain she lost it in 2022, when she accidentally included it in books she gave away while moving in with her boyfriend. No one knows what happened to the letter between her donating it in 2022 and Slocum picking it up in 2024, according to the Post. The two women hugged and talked for about 20 minutes.
She was the first person to take her granddaughter across the Hudson River into New York, and she took her to her first Broadway show, “Beauty and the Beast”, in the mid-1990s. She said she wrote the letter on a whim, wanting her granddaughter to know why she was proud of her. Roche told the Post she felt as though they were already friends. Irene Roche said friends at her senior community enjoyed the story, and that the letter’s closing lines told her granddaughter to take whatever life gave her with both hands and “keep on dancing”.
Irene Roche, who had just celebrated her 90th birthday, grew up in the Bronx, raised two children and worked as a bookkeeper until retiring in her 70s. PC: Washington Post Roche kept the letter for years. It went with her to college in St. Augustine, Florida, and to her first teaching job in New Orleans. It then stayed at her childhood home in Bergen County for three years while she taught first grade in Brazil. Roche and Slocum met the weekend after Silverman made the introduction, at Mount Pleasant’s town square near the farmers market. Slocum was holding the Patchett book. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.
A letter written by a grandmother on 23 August 2003 for her granddaughter’s 16th birthday has found its way back to its owner after 23 years. She posted a callout on 26 February, and Jacqueline Roche, 38, recognised the cursive the next day. Roche had donated the book in 2022 without realising the letter was inside. On 26 February, she posted the details on three D.C.-focused social media forums. The next day, Jacqueline Roche, 38, was scrolling through PoPville’s Instagram posts when a headline about a lost letter caught her attention. Roche’s parents held a large Sweet 16 party for her on 23 August 2003 at a catering hall in Bergen County, New Jersey, where she grew up. Following tradition, Roche named 16 people in her life, gave a short speech about each and lit a candle for each one.
Katie Slocum, 36, discovered the 132-word message inside an Ann Patchett novel, “State of Wonder”, which she had taken from a little free library in Washington, D.C. She described the effort as a “long shot”, according to the Washington Post. She also asked Dan Silverman, who runs the neighbourhood blog PoPville under the name “Prince of Petworth”, to issue a callout for Jackie, which he did promptly.
The two women met the following weekend in Mount Pleasant and have since become friends. Slocum works as a programme manager at American University’s School of International Service and as a server at Bar del Monte, a restaurant in her neighbourhood. She looked at the cursive in the photograph, saw to whom it was addressed and recognised it immediately. She had not realised until then that the letter was missing. She messaged PoPville to say she was the Jackie in question and that her paternal grandmother had given her the letter on her 16th birthday. Silverman replied a day later, asked for her email address and put her in touch with Slocum. Dozens of friends and family attended. Her grandmother, Irene Roche, helped her light one of the last candles.