Woman Reunited With Missing Book After 66 Years
- 10 years ago
A great-grandmother in Melbourne, Australia has been reunited with a long lost book. Betty Fowkes’ received a copy of 'Magic Australia’ when she was 11.
A great-grandmother in Melbourne, Australia has been reunited with a long lost book. Betty Fowkes received a copy of 'Magic Australia’ when she was 11. It had been a gift from her war veteran father, George Wardley.
Inside, he left a note reading ‘To Betty, from Daddy. Christmas 1944.’ According to Fowkes, who is now 80 years old, she lost the book about 4 years later, during a family move.
For 66 years, that very special copy of ‘Magic Australia’ was missing and Fowkes believed she’d never see it again. However, while listening to a radio broadcast, the elderly woman heard the author’s name, Nuri Mass, mentioned and that brought back memories.
She asked her daughter, Liz Crooks, to do some research into the book. Crooks set out to find a copy as a gift for Mother’s Day and tracked down only a few first edition copies around the world. She ended up purchasing it from New York’s Austin Book Shop.
Amazingly, the book that arrived is the same exact one Betty received as a child. Her dad’s inscription is still perfectly clear.
It remains a mystery how the book traveled around the world, but one thing is sure, Betty is thrilled to have it back.
A great-grandmother in Melbourne, Australia has been reunited with a long lost book. Betty Fowkes received a copy of 'Magic Australia’ when she was 11. It had been a gift from her war veteran father, George Wardley.
Inside, he left a note reading ‘To Betty, from Daddy. Christmas 1944.’ According to Fowkes, who is now 80 years old, she lost the book about 4 years later, during a family move.
For 66 years, that very special copy of ‘Magic Australia’ was missing and Fowkes believed she’d never see it again. However, while listening to a radio broadcast, the elderly woman heard the author’s name, Nuri Mass, mentioned and that brought back memories.
She asked her daughter, Liz Crooks, to do some research into the book. Crooks set out to find a copy as a gift for Mother’s Day and tracked down only a few first edition copies around the world. She ended up purchasing it from New York’s Austin Book Shop.
Amazingly, the book that arrived is the same exact one Betty received as a child. Her dad’s inscription is still perfectly clear.
It remains a mystery how the book traveled around the world, but one thing is sure, Betty is thrilled to have it back.