The Postcards My Grandma Gave Me Were Hiding A Secret She Took To Her Grave

Each card had a little handwritten note from her, a small message that I had always thought was just her “rambling grandma-isms.” They were cryptic, poetic sayings, like: “Not every door is locked just because it creaks,” and “You’ll never find truth where everyone agrees.” I used to think she was just being weirdly philosophical. But now, seeing them all together, I understood I was looking at something much deeper.

The real secret was hidden on the back of each card. She had used a different color of ink to underline certain letters—just one letter here, maybe two there—within her handwritten message. The shaking started in my hands as I spread all 17 postcards out on the kitchen table. It was a painstaking process, but I started carefully jotting down the underlined letters in the order they appeared on the cards.

At first, the sequence of letters made no sense. It was just a jumble. Then, slowly and miraculously, a clear and important phrase began to emerge:

“LOOK IN THE CEDAR HOPE CHEST. BOTTOM.”

Finding the False Bottom

The cedar hope chest had been in her bedroom for my entire life. I had always imagined it was just full of old moth-eaten blankets and linens—the kind of things you put away and forget about. When she passed, I was a young, busy, college-bound “know-it-all,” and the chest hadn’t crossed my mind.Continue reading…