The 10-year letter

When I was a kid, I was captivated by the book and TV series Anne of Green Gables. Favourite scene: when Anne gets Diana accidentally pissed on redcurrant wine. The setting of Prince Edward Island became a faraway, fantasy place in my mind of Lakes of Shining Waters and rocking chairs on verandas. One day, I told myself, One day, I would go there. 

Then I grew up and One day became To day and there I was on PEI, for real, last summer. In some ways it disappointed - Where were the horses and carts? Why were there cars and tarmac roads and McDonalds? - and in other ways it exceeded expectations with its beauty. 




Plus I got to rock myself silly on verandas most evenings. 

I became less interested in Anne and more interested in L.M. Montgomery, the author, and when I got home, I decided to read her biography. When she was 10, I learnt, she had to leave her beloved island with her family to relocate to somewhere else in Canada. In her sadness, she had this idea:

To write and exchange a letter with each of her best friends.....

BUT THE LETTERS COULD NOT BE OPENED FOR 10 YEARS.

I loved this! I was moving from Witney to Lancaster, voluntarily, but all the same I was so sad to leave my close friends. I decided to write a not-to-be-opened-for-10-years letter to one of my ‘kindred spirits’ (as Anne would say!): a snapshot of our lives and our friendship at this time. 




How would things have changed when she finally opened it? 

This weekend, we met up halfway and I handed her the letter. Don’t steam it open with a kettle, read it, and reseal it, I said. She’s a sneaky one, that Sarah. Oh, and just in case I die in the next 10 years, I've sprayed it with my perfume so you can sniff me.