A Man Waits 47 Years To Open A Present He Got From His Ex-Girlfriend From High School
Adrian and Vicki were in high school in the 70s. They were young lovers with a promising relationship. However, their love came to an abrupt crash. Vicki left Adrian with a gift box before she left. To commemorate their time together he never opened it, but when he finally did it had preserved memories of them together for 47 years.
It All Started With A Box
Adrian Pearce and Vicki Allen met as they became high school sweethearts. Adrian was a pretty normal 15-year-old from Toronto, Ontario
It seemed as if the couple was destined to be together and their time together in the 70s, when they were high school sweethearts, was something only a generation would relate to. Their relationship during that decade was marked by an unopened box, which would eventually become a symbol of an emotive story.
More Than Just A High-School Fling
Adrian and Vicki had a crush on each other and seemed to enjoy their young love like so many do at that age – with great care and innocence.
They knew that they were still very young, but to the both of them, it seemed as though their relationship had been in the cards. Even though they both knew that this was probably only just a high-school fling, at the time it felt like much more to the youngsters.
Holiday Season
Adrian and Vicki had been together during the 70s and in those days, keeping warm during the winter times was a part of the holiday season. That year as the holiday season came around, the two spent time together as they usually would.
Snuggling up, sharing kisses, and getting cozy was just a part of the season’s celebrations. They had started spending more time together and from Adrian’s point of view, their relationship seemed as though it was in a good place.
A Cozy Christmas
As the winter weather rolled in, the young couple got ready for the highlight of the season – Christmas. There’s nothing quite like the build-up to Christmas when you’re younger, especially when you’re able to share it with a loved one.
For Adrian and Vicki, the holiday season would mark an important stage in their relationship. Because the couple was still so young though, they were largely unprepared for the dramatic twists and turn that young love tends to offer.
A Goodbye Gift
While the young couple had enjoyed their Christmas together, their time together would be short-lived. Even though Adrian assumed that his early relationship with Vicki was on good ground, she would end up leaving him that December.
Without a reason or an excuse, Vicki decided to leave Adrian and follow her own path in life. Before leaving though, she would offer Adrian a parting gift to show her gratitude for the time she had spent with him.
Sadness, Anger, Acceptance
Upon realizing that Vicki had decided to break up with him, Adrian became distraught. His time with Vicki was the first time he had really been in a serious relationship with someone.
Adrian became angry as he was confused and could not understand why she would leave so quickly. To him, it had seemed as though things were going well in the past as Vicki had not expressed any outward signs of disagreement between the two of them. Slowly though, he came to accept their moving on.
A Tradition
When Vicki left, she gave Adrian a small, blue present as a parting gift. Rather than opening it though, Adrian kept it as a token of their time together.
He never opened the present and instead, made a habit of keeping the present under his Christmas tree every year as a way of reminding him of that time he spent with Vicki. As the years went on, the present became a personal tradition of Adrian’s and every Christmas he would continue to place the unopened gift under his tree.
Where Did She Go?
As the years passed, it was not necessarily the sadness that Adrian felt about Vicki leaving. He was simply perplexed as to why she had packed up her bags and left at all.
As far as Adrian was concerned, he never got any closure and had no idea where she had gone. It was a mystery that haunted him for many years, nearly half a century, to be precise! But back when he was young, all he could do was try to move on…
Moving On
After a while of coming to terms with his feelings, Adrian managed to pick himself up from the emotional slump and get on with his life.
While most of us know that the end of your first serious relationship is often the hardest, learning how to recover from them is one of the best lessons you can learn in life. Soon after his breakup with Vicki, Adrian would move on to find a new woman in his life. He was moving on.
Falling In Love
As Adrian and his new partner, Janet, spent more time together, they realized that they were meant to be together. They would frequently spend time together and felt as though they were a genuine emotional match for one another.
By this time, Adrian had moved on from Vicki, but often still thought about her during the holiday seasons, whenever the gift was brought out around Christmas time. Adrian was with Janet now though, and he knew that this was what he wanted.
The Unopened Box
As Janet and Adrian became a more solid couple, they decided to take their relationship to the next level. They eventually got married and would go on to have children together. Janet and Adrian were about as happy as they could get.
Their marriage was strong and they worked well together as a couple. There was only one problem – Janet and Adrian’s children couldn’t understand why he kept placing the mysterious blue gift under the Christmas tree every year.
A Family Mystery
As Adrian brought out the gift year after year and added it to their gifts under the tree, they wondered what the point was. Why would he bring out this mysterious gift every year?
When they started probing him for information regarding the strange gift being included at every Christmas he would often talk it off or say it was just something he enjoyed doing. To Adrian, the gift was his own personal tradition and that was that.
Opening Up
Over time though, Adrian’s family became more and more concerned about the nature of his gift and why it was so important to him.
They found the whole thing strange and would frequently ask him what the point was or why it was significant to him. As per usual, he would try and talk it off, but it was getting to the point where his wife Janet was starting to make a point out of finding out what the gift meant.
Missing Love
After a constant inquiry from his family, Adrian was forced to tell the story about the mysterious gift. He opened up about his past experiences with Vicki and the time that they had shared together during high school.
He explained that he had received the gift from Vicki when she left him when he was younger. At first, his children thought the story was ridiculous, claiming that keeping the gift for that long was “strange”. But Janet was intrigued by his story and encouraged him to do something about it.
A Facebook Post
Adrian was not sure where to start. Trying to get in touch with someone he had last seen such a long time ago would certainly be difficult.
It was at that point that Janet encouraged him to go public with his story. Adrian decided to make a Facebook post about the story and see whether or not the people would know how to get in touch with Vicki. After reaching out, Adrian’s story started spreading like wildfire!
Fakes!
As Adrian made his post, he didn’t think much would come of it. He wasn’t expecting much of a reaction, just some advice on how to find her again. Instead, his story was picked up by influencers and media outlets alike.
Pretty soon, the story of Adrian and his long-lost love had taken the internet by storm. Through all the activity, a number of impersonators turned up claiming to be Vicki, but Adrian soon proved them to be the fakes that they were.
Mutual Friend
After Adrian’s story had gone viral, he had to contend with a lot of impersonators. After sifting through the fakes, he realized that he had still come no closer to finding Vicki.
Thankfully though, an old friend found out about Adrian’s plight and realized that he was friends with Vicki on Facebook. As a result, Adrian was able to reach out to Vicki and managed to tell her about her gift and how he kept it for so long.
An Amazing Reunion
After all these years, Adrian was amazed by the fact that he had managed to find Vicki as he did. In turn, Vicki was just as amazed that Adrian had bothered reaching out to her in the first place.
His message had come totally out of the blue for Vicki and she agreed to meet up with Adrian to open the gift and discuss it together. They eventually met together in western Canada where Adrian and Vicki have reunited together again for the first time since they were youngsters.
Broadcast For Charity
In the ensuing build-up towards their reunion, the couple had managed to generate a lot of media attention surrounding the story of their relationship and the mysterious, unopened gift.
Rather than use this simply to get attention for themselves, Adrian and Vicki decided that they would broadcast the story and use the opportunity to generate cash for a charity. The couple successfully managed to raise $1,300 for the Christmas Bureau in Edmonton to help children in need over the holidays.
Unwrapping The Gift
Finally, in 2018, roughly 47 years since the couple had been together, they met one another around Christmas time to reveal what the secret inside the blue wrapping paper really was.
Until this point, Adrian had never opened the present whatsoever, and its contents had remained a mystery for a truly long period of time. As the old friends embraced and conversed together, they knew that the time had come to put the old mystery to an end and finally close this chapter in their lives.
‘Love Is’
Adrian quickly unwrapped the gift in front of the press and all the bystanders who had gathered for the momentous occasion.
It felt strange for Adrian to be opening this gift that he had kept sealed for such a long time, but there was a great deal of joy in doing so as well. The gift turned out to be a collection of comic strips made by a woman named Kim Grove entitled ‘Love Is: New Ways To Spot That Certain Feeling’.
It Was With Me All These Years
To understand just how special Adrian’s gift was that he had been holding onto for so long, we need to understand what was inside this mysterious book.
Love Is New Ways To Spot That Certain Feeling is a book of comic strips by Kim Grove and each strip shows the same two figures and why they love each other. These comic strips had an extra layer of meaning and significance to Adrian and Vicki.
Memorable Moment
After all these years, Adrian finally knew what the gift was. He was touched by the thought of it, but asked Vicki why she had still chosen to leave so suddenly.
Vicki explained that she had shared a kiss with another guy at the time called Wolf. While she had been committed to Adrian until then, after kissing Wolf, she would decide to pursue a relationship with him, leaving Adrian. The gift was meant to symbolize that shift in her life.
Novel Idea
The story of Adrian, Vicki, and the unopened present had left such an impression on the public that the story kept getting swept up on the internet and across the media.
Pretty soon, they had both become famous in their own right and the couple was able to create a book documenting their story and the moment of their reuniting. Not only had Adrian managed to find happiness by restoring a relationship from his past, but his story had won the minds and hearts of the public.
Look, I’m On TV!
In what can only be described as a snowball effect, Adrian and Vicki’s story was getting more buzz by the day. Before they knew it, the dynamic duo was able to attract a number of studios as a result of Adrian’s media connections.
Here you can see Vicki doing a screen test before she gets interviewed about the story. And while they ended up on both the internet and on TV, there was still one more fitting way they chose to share their story…
Time To Hit The Books
Pretty soon, they had both become famous in their own right and the couple was able to create a book documenting their story and the moment of their reuniting.
Their book, The 47-Year-Old Present, meticulously details the duo’s incredible story. Now, many are flocking to their book signings hoping to grab a copy, and both Adrian and Vicki feel so honored to have had such a special story to share with the world. But wait, there’s more…
Best Of Both Worlds
Possibly the most exciting part of this story is the way that Adrian’s story has pretty much come full circle.
Having thought that he had lost his dear Vicki forever, he never lost hope that one day, he might be able to reunite with her and hold onto some of the good things that they had all those years ago. Now, he has the best of both worlds. He has a loving wife in Janet while also finding his dear friend Vicki.
A New Perspective
Rather than seeing this as the end to something that he had put off for a long time, Adrian realized that this was, in fact, the start of a new perspective for both him and Vicki.
While both had moved on and become married with kids of their own, their story was an encapsulating one that was both interesting and romantic. After releasing a book, Adrian took to working on a documentary as well and we might be lucky to get a hold of it soon!
