A priest has told how he was given a book by the family of a late neighbour and found flowers he had given her as a teenager pressed inside.
Reverend Daniel Brereton, from Ontario, Canada, took to Twitter to tell how he had fallen in love with 1901 novel The Making of a Marchioness after reading it at the home of his elderly neighbour Mrs Smith, whom he affectionately called ‘Granny’.
The title, which Mrs Smith forevermore called ‘Danny’s book’, was passed down to her daughter, and later her granddaughter.
Writing on Twitter, Reverend Brereton, now thought to be in his 40s, explained how he was touched when Mrs Smith sent him the book on her mother’s death.
Reverend Daniel Brereton, from Ontario, Canada, took to Twitter to tell his story, garnering over 2.5k likes and over 650 retweets. He would bring Granny flowers as a young boy
The Making of a Marchioness, a 1901 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, was the book Daniel would read in ‘Granny’s’ house, he was sent it with flowers he gave her 29 years beforehand
He opened the classic novel and was moved to find flowers he had given Mrs Smith 29 years ago pressed between the pages.
The story went viral, garnering 2.5k likes and over 650 retweets, as followers fell in love with the sentimental tale.
‘She was like a third grandmother to us,’ he said of next door neighbour Mrs Smith, who told Daniel and his sister to call her ‘Granny like the apple’.
Daniel said that Mrs Smith would give he and his sister a cookie in return for the wildflowers they would bring her.
‘When she became too frail to be outside gardening anymore my mother would take us each week for a visit. But the adult conversations would become boring and I’d start to get fidgety.
People were left stunned by lovely story, some even reduced to tears. ‘I’m not crying. You’re crying. Okay. I’m crying. I want a Granny Smith,’ wrote one person in response to the tweets
‘Knowing I was a big reader Granny told me to take any book from her shelf I wanted to read,’ he added.
Daniel revealed that he chose The Making of a Marchioness, a 1901 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
He said he became so ‘absorbed’ in the book that he ‘dragged’ his mother back several times for visits ‘just so I could keep reading’.
‘Granny finally loaned me the book to finish. She thought it was the funniest thing and often referred to it in the years to come as “Danny’s book,”‘ he said.
Reverend Daniel Brereton, from Ontario, Canada, took to Twitter to tell how he had fallen in love with 1901 novel The Making of a Marchioness after reading it at the home of his elderly neighbour Mrs Smith, whom he affectionately called ‘Granny’. He was given the book decades later by her granddaughter and shared a photo of the delicate pages, pictured
‘Fast forward 7 years. I’m heading off to University. I went to say goodbye to a house-bound Granny, and as a joke gave her some little blue and yellow “flowers” (weeds) I had picked from the side of the road.
‘She gave 18-year-old me a kiss and a cookie. She died later that year,’ he said.
On Wednesday Daniel received a package in the mail from Mrs Smith’s granddaughter, who had found The Making of a Marchioness while sorting through her own late mother’s – Mrs Smith’s daughter’s – belongings.
Remembering how her grandmother had always called it ‘Danny’s book’, the granddaughter found Reverend Brereton’s address.
Daniel is pictured in his church in Ontario, Canada, during a service. He was left touched after he found the flowers he had given ‘Granny’ still safely stored between the pages of the book
‘It’s a first edition from 1901 and so delicate that I was afraid to even open it,’ Daniel continued. ‘But glad I did… Because inside…. yep, little blue and yellow flowers pressed between the pages that I’d given her one late August afternoon 29 years ago….Thanks Granny.’
People were left stunned by lovely story, some even reduced to tears.
‘I’m not crying. You’re crying. Okay. I’m crying. I want a Granny Smith,’ wrote one woman in response to the tweet.
Another person wrote: ‘Really that’s what this life is all about, isn’t it.’
‘I think my heart just wanted to explode. It’s people like Granny Smith in our lives that make it feel worthwhile,’ wrote a third.