Plum Johnson | Plum Johnson

I love to design “Freebies.” Ever since I was five years old, and found in the bottom of my cereal box a yellow plastic ring shaped like a cannon that pinged out Cheerios, I’ve been hooked on giveaways. But what’s an appropriate freebie for my book, They Left Us Everything?

I’ve decided on a letter. When we cleared out Mum and Dad’s house, we found thousands of them. I figure letters are becoming more precious than ever. The next generation won’t have any – right? Certainly not stamped via snail mail and addressed in cursive hand.

If you come to one of my author talks, I’ll give you a copy of this one, written in 1840 by my great-great-grandfather, George Lind. They didn’t use envelopes, it was just folded and sealed with wax: Environmentally responsible – right?

I decided I’d soak the copies in tea – to make them look old. But paper has no “rag” content these days, so the whole thing disintegrated. Phooey. Never mind, I’ll tie them in a bundle and make the string look old!

I measured the pieces of string using the gold knobs on my kitchen cabinets – they were my “renovation” twenty years ago. You can see on the counter I was supposed to be making meatloaf.

Then I soaked the string in a bowl of tea bags …

and folded and tied the letters in front of the TV, waiting for news of the Malaysian flight disaster, wondering if any passengers had written a note, or if we’d ever find them …

et voila … George Lind’s letter, reincarnated. He was a nobody –like most of us – but he’s become a somebody now … because he wrote this letter … and because somebody saved it. It’s also about a disaster at sea. Wait til you read it …