As a romance writer, my head is always filled with wonderful images of love and happy endings.  So, to find a letter written by an un-named woman to an un-named man, inside a plastic bag and tucked neatly between the iron railings on a very old bridge near my house...Oh my!  My romantic self could think of only one thing to do -- share it with all of you and also include it in my next book.

Imagine this - Patrick and I, along with our good friend Phillip, decided to launch two small rafts on a nearby creek and go fishing Saturday afternoon.  Since we'd never done this before, it was a bit of an adventure that required us to get the rafts down a steep bank, hope they didn't leak (Phillip's raft did), and then try to balance fishing poles and ourselves in these tiny blow-up vessels.  As for me...I was on constant snake and gator patrol. 

The drive to our house is amazing.  Trees form an arch over the road that runs parallel to the creek, and on the way you cross over an incredible historic bridge.  On the way to the creek Saturday, Patrick slowed the truck on the bridge, then stopped.  He reached over, grabbed a plastic bag pushed between the iron railings, pulled out a white piece of paper, and read a letter aloud.  Then he put it back - because the letter said at the end "If this is not you, please put the letter back, okay?  God Bless You All." 

After an exciting, one-catch fish day (Patrick caught a tiny Bass), we headed back.  But I couldn't stop thinking about that letter.  Stapled to the white piece of paper was an Andes candy wrapper, and the letter began with, "Hi.  If this wrapper has meaning for you, if it makes you smile and maybe think of laundry, then this note is for you."  I'm not going to share the entire letter because that would seem to be some sort of betrayal to these two people. 

Anyway, the next morning, I promised myself I'd get up and write for a while, so I did.  My new book will have a covered bridge on the cover, so I wanted to tie that into the story somehow.  And, believe it or not, this letter was not on my mind at the time.  Then BAM!  A bright light came on, I threw on some clothes, waved bye to hubby, and said, "I have to go see if he got the letter!!"  I drove to the bridge and the letter was still there.  I checked to make sure it was stuck tightly between the railing, then I took these pictures to show you.  I headed back, and it was quite clear to me how to incorporate this incident into my book. 

I'm sure that I'll go every day to see if this man has retrieved her letter.  I hope someone else, someone the letter was not intended for, doesn't remove it, read it, and toss it aside.  That would be tragic. 

Here's the river bridge and also a pic of the letter pushed between the railing.  My romantic self is swooning...