On Thursday, Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School Rowing Club coach, Ian Bousfield, came across something quite unusual as he arrived for practice at Powell’s Pool in Birmingham, England — a note and a rose stuck to the chain link fence.
The note read: “Please, can someone throw this into the lake for me? My late-husband’s ashes are in the lake and I can’t get to the lakeside in my wheelchair anymore [and] gates are locked. Have to drive back up north tonight. Thank you.”
Accompanying the note was a full red rose.
As the above tweet states, the request was met:
This note was left on the gate at the water this afternoon. No name or number left but whoever you are, rest assured your rose is in place in the middle of the lake.
The man who found the note, Bishop Vesey’s geography teacher and head of rowing, Ian Bousfield, told The Daily Wire that the note was “wedged into the handle” of the “metal gate that leads to our boathouse.”
Bousfield says he was touched by the request: “It was very heart wrenching when I saw it initially, and I was more than happy to fulfill the person’s wishes.”
“I’m very grateful for everyone’s kind comments on twitter,” he said, adding, “It’s very uplifting, and I have read them all.”
The reactions on Twitter have been near-universally grand:
Some even offered suggestions so that whoever left the note may know it was honored:
“Maybe replace her note there with your own and a copy of the photo?”
“Might be next [year] same day, someone put up a rose n note for her? Probably, the day holds a [special] value and place in her heart.”
As of publication, the tweet has received 153,000 “likes,” has been retweeted more than 43,000 times, and gotten approximately 1,300 replies from all over the world. The person who penned the note has yet to be identified.