Return to Sender
Cassandra Warren was in a rush and feeling a little overwhelmed with work and planning her 200-person wedding. As she was getting invitations for her nuptials in the mail one day last year, she hurriedly addressed one to her aunt and uncle in Eugene, Oregon, about 20 minutes from where she lived.
A week later, the invitation came back. She had mistakenly jotted down the wrong address.
A handwritten note was scrawled on the return envelope: “I wish I knew you—this is going to be a blast. Congratulations—go have dinner on me. I’ve been married for 40 years—it gets better with
age.” A $20 bill was tucked inside.
Cassandra was at a bit of a professional crossroads and had been having a tough day. In fact, she’d been in “mid-meltdown,” venting to her then-fiancé, Jesse Jones, about her frustrations just as she opened the misdirected envelope. Then she read the note.
“It was kind of perfect timing,” says Cassandra, who works as a nanny. “I was really grateful for it.”
And the magic envelope wasn’t finished with its surprises. Cassandra looked closer and saw that the person had scribbled “Live long and prosper” on the envelope, a nod to Star Trek. “We’re kind of Trekkies,” she says. Cassandra, 26, and Jesse, 24, have no idea who the mystery note writer is. But they figure the Star Trek reference was because the person noticed the “fandom” corner of their invitation, which had both a Star Wars lightsaber and a Harry Potter wand.
“She assumed we’d understand her message,” Cassandra says. “Which we did.”
Cassandra and Jesse—who is a counselor for families with autistic children—went out to dinner the following night with a friend who was going overseas with the military. They happily put the $20 toward their bill.
Then Cassandra stopped by a store and bought another card—a thankyou card. She wrote her aunt and uncle’s incorrect address on the envelope again—this time on purpose— and addressed it to “Kind Stranger.”
Inside, she wrote, “Thank you for the note and taking the time to send it. Not many people would have done that. It was a big blessing after the day I was having. I am thankful for people like you still being in the world.”
“THANK YOU FOR THE NOTE. IT WAS A BIG BLESSING AFTER THE DAY I WAS HAVING.”