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Widow’s lakeside note breaks hearts on Twitter

A teacher in Birmingham shared the tragic story of a woman who can no longer visit her late husband.
A teacher in Birmingham shared the tragic story of a woman who can no longer visit her late husband. A teacher in Birmingham shared the tragic story of a woman who can no longer visit her late husband.

A heart-rending note left by an anonymous widow has prompted some emotional responses on Twitter after being discovered near a lake in Birmingham.

The note, found by a local teacher, appears to have been left by a woman who came to mourn her late husband but was unable to reach the water.

Accompanied by a solitary rose, it 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.”

Ian Bousfield, 29, a geography teacher at Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield, posted photos of the handwritten note, which he discovered attached to a red rose by Powell’s Pool lake.

The woman intended to toss the rose into the lake in memory of her late husband, whose ashes were scattered there, but she couldn’t reach the water by herself.

Instead she attached a note with a request on a gate leading to the lake yesterday afternoon.

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 + gates are locked – have to drive back up north tonight. Thank you x.”

Mr Bousfield shared the image from the school’s account and it has since received more than 7,000 retweets and 24,000 likes on Twitter.

Mr Bousfield said: “I saw the note on the gate and thought it was a lovely tribute this person was making for her late husband.

“I placed the rose in the water and just was trying to be as respectful of the tribute as possible, if the person went to the trouble of buying the rose and leaving the note it only seemed right to honour her tribute.

“It was a simple tweet just to mark the event, it’s beyond the realm of any reasonable thinking that it would get such coverage.”

Other Twitter users have been giving emotional reactions to the message which touched their hearts.

One Twitter user who claimed to be from America wrote: “I hope that this woman knows that her message went viral, and is being appreciated in the United States.

“Love, condolences, and many thanks to the people who shared this bit of humanity. We are better people for sharing this.”

“Bless you for helping fulfill this lady’s remembrance of her beloved husband,” said another.

A third added: “There are some lovely people in this world”.