Can anyone help please?

General letterboxing discussion.

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Gaffer2
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Can anyone help please?

Post by Gaffer2 »

I and my wife used to letterbox. We had 4 unregistered boxes out on the moor. She had an accident at home, became disabled and now has to use a wheelchair. I had to give up work to be her f/t Carer.I came back to Dartmoor last week to take in my four boxes as I will no longer be able to maintain them due to my circumstances and location some 230 miles away. I only found 2. Time was not on my side as I can't leave my wife for long periods. I need someone to look for them and return the contents to me. I will of course reimburse postage. One is near the Hunter Memorial at Lydford, the other near Sharpitor.
I'm new to this Forum and so am not familiar with how much detail I should give at this point in a public post but will give more (in a private message?) once I see the response.
Thank you.
Dartymoor
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Re: Can anyone help please?

Post by Dartymoor »

Hi and welcome to the forum and I'm sorry to hear about the unfortunate circumstances.

There's a chance the two you couldn't find have been stolen, but I'm sure somebody will drop by and offer to take another look if they're passing. Sadly I'm on the other side of the moor and not planning to head that way soon.
Gaffer2
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Re: Can anyone help please?

Post by Gaffer2 »

Thank you for the good wishes. I've had one offer to look so far. If I get any more, then I'll accept up to two more: easier then to keep in touch and notify any results. I did have a box stolen many years ago but I learned the lesson to put newer boxes further off the road, less visible, and in less accessed areas. I don't think that either of these have been stolen. I keep a guarded optimism.
My very good wishes to you also.
Nik - KOTM
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Re: Can anyone help please?

Post by Nik - KOTM »

Even though you are sadly tied down due to circumstances
out of your control. I hope you can keep an oar in the mix by staying on the forum. All comments on here would be welcome.
You didn't say where you are based...
Nik 245 to go
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Gaffer2
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Re: Can anyone help please?

Post by Gaffer2 »

My location says where I am based: Hemel Hempstead in Herts. I'm a northerner by birth and upbringing but came here for work.

I think that my stay in the Forum will be short-lived. My wife's accident, becoming disabled, and my giving up work to be her Carer precludes my letterboxing in future. Hence why I need to get my two remaining boxes taken in as I can no longer maintain them nor pursue collecting any more. A few years ago I'd have looked forward to being an active Forum inputter; but, sadly, no more. My shelf life here is regrettably a limited one. My mind may continue to orient me towards letterboxing but my circumstances orient me away from it.

I've just had the one offer to help to date. I think that my boxes will be found and returned to me. I'm forever grateful for the assistance. My circumstances are difficult and it's uplifting to find such goodwill in the letterboxing community when it seems so prevalently short elsewhere. I reciprocate that to all my readers. TTFN.
Trufflebuggy&Co
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Re: Can anyone help please?

Post by Trufflebuggy&Co »

Have PM you, I'm near Lydford and would be happy to have a look.

Steph
Stephanie, Grenville, James and little Fiona
Nik - KOTM
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Re: Can anyone help please?

Post by Nik - KOTM »

I know you posted this in May, but don't give up on the forum. A bit of friendly banter and an input of knowledge, and who knows what else may happen...
You are a valued member
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Gaffer2
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Re: Can anyone help please?

Post by Gaffer2 »

Thank you, Nik- KOTM. Your comments much appreciated. My circumstances are difficult and demanding. Little things like receiving a kind word here and there help provide a much-needed fillip.
535 views of my post to date. 3 offers to help. 2 messages of support. My box near Sharpitor was found - sadly, flooded. It was found some time back by one of my 3 offers to help but, being unregistered and the Visitors' Book in a sodden state, my contact details were indicipherable. Thanks to this Forum, though, he was able to let me know of the box's demise.
The hunt goes on for my last remaining box near Lydford. I expect news very soon.
Regrettably, I must thereafter bow out from the Forum. My courtship with it was necessarily destined to be shortlived as I have to turn over the page on my letterboxing days. I wish that I'd found the Forum a few years ago when I could have expected a longer shelf life. I've experienced some of the best of human nature in my short time on it.
I'm ambivalent about mentioning it; and don't mean it as a discordant note or to personalise. But, I was surprised to find your flashing motif "Knight on the moor". This sort of thing went out of favour when it was realised that they can trigger fits, epilepsy, and/or headaches. We've all seen and heard the forewarning notices on tv. My eyes go bozzy even if I try to focus away from it. Sorry about that but I thought I'd mention it. No slight is intended. Over to you.
My very good wishes to you and all our readership.
Nik - KOTM
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Re: Can anyone help please?

Post by Nik - KOTM »

Noted...
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Gaffer2
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Re: Can anyone help please?

Post by Gaffer2 »

An honourable and most gracious response from you, Nik, made sotto voce. Thank you. The new motif is easier on the eye and improves on the original.

I'd like now to make appeal anew for help in trying to find and take in my sole remaining letterbox from the Lydford area. My sister lived in Mary Tavy but died aged 47 in 2010. I put out the box in 2011 in her honour and memory. I called it "Bernadette's Box" or "Bernie's Box". Offers of help to me so far have proven unsuccessful. The box is unregistered and I don't have GPS coordinates. I can provide information on location by Private Message. I've discovered more details of it in my possession since my original post but so far no-one has had them. Nothing so far leads me to believe that my box flooded or has been vandalised or stolen.
Gaffer2
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Re: Can anyone help please?

Post by Gaffer2 »

In the 8 weeks since my original posting of 25th May there have been 1092 views to date. My thanks are due to the many of you who returned to this narrative chain to check on progress. Thanks too are due to my wellwishers and those who sent me supportive comments. Especial thanks I make to the 2 people (Sailor Ashore and Box Hunter) who searched the area for me and another (trekkernod) who was intending to look. To quote Shakespeare's Miranda in "The Tempest": "O Brave New World that hath such people in it".
The rock under which I'd put the box was identified. Undergrowth and bracken were there. So, possibly, they may have pushed out the box as they grew. It could have fallen. It might have been found and misplaced.
To repeat: the box was named "Bernadette's Box" or "Bernie's Box" and I put it out in 2011 in the area over the stream and along from the Hunter Memorial in honour and memory of my late sister who lived in Mary Tavy, dying at the age of 47 in St Luke's Hospice, Plymouth. She'd worked as a nurse/sister at the Derriford Hospital and at a Care Home in Okehampton. We'd spread her ashes nearby. It would have meant so much to me to have found and retrieved the box. I take solace in knowing that it wasn't just vandalised or flooded.
If ever it does turn up, then my details are in the Visitors' Book. It might just turn out that the Book gets full and someone rings me to report that fact. I live in hope.
Anyway, that's me bowing out from the Forum. My role as a f/t Carer and my circumstances effectively rule letterboxing out for me in future. I'd always wanted to get to 1000. Sadly, I got to just under 700.
I will look in on the Forum in future. This chain looks set to receive more views; perhaps comments as well.
My very good wishes and blessings to all. I'm humbled by the kindnesses which have been shown. Many thanks.
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Re: Can anyone help please?

Post by Sowerby Streaker »

Fingers crossed you havn't departed the forum yet as I have news on your bernadettes box.

A letterboxing friend of min sent me this email just now:-

According to
my records I found this box, with a stamp of a Teddy Bear, on 12th May 2012, at 53?? 85?? (full 10 fig grid given so if anyone wants it pm me). I have searched the area today as well as I could, but the bracken on High Down is horrendous. I wonder if you would be kind enough to tell him that I will have another look when the bracken has died down later in the year? If he wants more >information I am happy for you to give him my email address.
Dartymoor
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Re: Can anyone help please?

Post by Dartymoor »

(I've emailed Gaffer2 to let him know of your response)
Gaffer2
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Re: Can anyone help please?

Post by Gaffer2 »

Thank you, Sowerby Streaker, and also to your friend who came across my box in 2012. Yes please: I'd be grateful if you would look in the area when the bracken has died down. The stamp was indeed a teddy bear. My late younger sister inherited teddy bears from her two brothers in turn.
I'm not intending to leave the Forum just yet as you've given me something to look out for for the foreseeable future. There are now enough details posted of my letterbox (location, name, and stamp) that another reader may look for - and perhaps find - it if it's still there.
I'll have a look for an email from Dartymoor as soon as my email provider Talk Talk sorts out today's temporary problem.
Gaffer2
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Re: Can anyone help please?

Post by Gaffer2 »

I've been asked to give an update:
it's 15 weeks since I launched this post. 3135 views to date: far, far more than I could ever have hoped. 3 correspondents have said that they will make a purposeful search for my missing Bernadette's Box. The bracken and undergrowth have been so thick that searching has been difficult. I continue to hope that it will be found. My sister's next birthday would have been next month - October 9th. Thank you for reading; and a particular thanks to those who will look and hence keep my hopes alive.
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