To the editor:

This is a thank-you letter to someone whose name I don’t know. I hope it will reach them.

Here’s the story: on a warm, sunny early September day last year my family went for a walk on Ferry Beach. I was wearing shorts and carrying my key ring in my hand. My husband offered to put the keys in his shirt pocket, and we continued our walk, down to the end of Western Beach, walking in the water most of the time. When we were halfway back he said, “You have your keys, don’t you?” I said, “You’re kidding, right?” But he wasn’t.

What happened was that he had taken off his shirt and tied it around his waist, and the keys had fallen into the water. 

We searched and searched the area, but the waves had apparently buried them under the sand. That key ring had my car keys, my work keys, my house key, my gas speed-pass, my library card and several other things on it. We put up a big sign at the beach entrance and called the police, but no one ever called to say they had found the keys, and we considered them long-gone.

You can imagine my surprise when I had a call from the library staff this June, saying, “We have your car keys.” At first I thought they had made a mistake! Why would the library have my car keys? Besides, it had been nine months since I had had to replace the keys, and I had even bought a new car shortly thereafter. 

It turned out someone had found the key ring on the beach nine months after we lost them, after an entire winter of waves, ice, and storms!

The only identifying item on the key ring was the library card, which only has a number on it. So, this kind person delivered my keys to the library, where the staff looked up my name and called me. 

I just want to say – thanks!

Mary Burdick

Scarborough