A lost letter, a Facebook post and a reunion
Wayward note in someone’s yard led to a student and teacher reuniting
SAN JOSE >> “Dear Gabi,” began the smudged note covered by faint tire marks.
When the lost letter landed last weekend in Bud Geracie’s front yard in west San Jose, it had traveled for four months, blown by the summer wind hither and yon — for more than a mile, it turns out.
The message was sweet — an uplifting, personal thank you to a student from her teacher at the end of the school year.
“Thank you for always having the most positive, encouraging smile in Eng. 3,” it read.
“Your upbeat attitude, kindness, and quiet intelligence contributed more to the class (and my mood) than you will ever know… unless you become a teacher.
“I look forward to seeing where life takes you — you have so much potential! Best, Ms. Chatfield.”
Geracie, the Bay Area News Group executive sports editor, was touched. And soon, so too would be his Facebook friends.
Perhaps, Geracie thought, if he shared the “Dear Gabi” letter on Facebook, someone would recognize the names and help him locate the student or the teacher. And maybe people would appreciate something beautiful amid the ugliness of Sunday night’s tragedy in Las Vegas.
“I offer it here as salve in these troubled times, a reminder of how sweet life can be and that there is goodness among us,’’ Geracie wrote at 11:46 a.m. Tuesday on his Facebook page.
Less than two hours later, the lost-and-found story of the “Dear Gabi” note was had been solved.
“I know this kid!!! And this teacher!!’’ Del Mar High School teacher Stacey Chase wrote Gera-
cie at 1:37 p.m. “I can give it back to her!’’
She had been searching for some glimmer of goodness, some sliver of hope in a Facebook feed overloaded with the week’s grim news, when she stumbled upon “Dear Gabi.”
Chase is Facebook friends with Geracie, who is friends with Chase’s brother Cody Sampson. All three live within a few blocks of each other near Hamilton Avenue.
The hand-written letter “caught me off-guard,’’ Chase recalled.
“It was addressed to someone named Gabi, and I thought, ‘Oh, how funny: I have a student named Gabi,’ ’’ now a senior at Del Mar enrolled in her economics class.
But it was the name at the end of the note that jumped out: “Ms. Chatfield.’’ Chase thought it had to be her Del Mar colleague Clare Chatfield.
She went back and read the note in detail, “and it made sense to me,’’ Chase said.
“Because Gabi has a warmth and a quiet intensity. She doesn’t speak up much in class, but when she does, you appreciate it.’’
By lunchtime Thursday, the “Dear Gabi” had made its way from Geracie to Sampson to Chase and finally to Gabi.
“She really just sort of lit up,’’ said Chase, who would learn the story behind the letter.
It was a few days before the end of school, right after final exams in Chatfield’s class. Ariez Gabrielle “Gabi’’ Certeza watched as some of her classmates lined up to ask the English teacher to sign their yearbooks.
The 17-year-old junior hadn’t bought a yearbook, but she had so enjoyed Chatfield’s class — especially “The Great Gatsby’’— that she wondered if her teacher would write her a personal note instead.
“It was very touching,’’ Chatfield recalled this week.
Five minutes and 12 short sentences later, she gave the note to Certeza, who thanked her, then walked out the door and stopped to read it.
“What she said about me was really nice,’’ Certeza said, still awed by the words. “I would never think she would say that.’’
It would be a real keepsake, she thought, but for now she put it in her back pocket and joined her boyfriend on their walk back to his house, just a few blocks from Del Mar High.
When they arrived, he pulled out his yearbook to show her all the signatures. Certeza proudly reached for Ms. Chatfield’s note.
But it wasn’t there. In a panic, she searched every pocket, then rifled through her backpack. The couple retraced their steps from school, but could not find the note. Her heart sank.
“I thought it was ruined and gone forever,’’ she said. “I didn’t know what to do.’’ She thought about asking Ms. Chatfield to write another note, but felt too embarrassed.
Now that it’s been returned, Certeza has placed it safely inside an envelope inside a memory box at home. And the circuitous route the letter took to get back in her hands?
“It’s kind of a nice reminder that there is not only bad that happens in the world,” she said, “there is good that’s out there, too.’’