Cynthia Riggs is an 81-year-old mystery writer and owner of a bed and breakfast in Martha’s Vineyard. After living by herself for decades, she received a strange coded note in the mail. She was pretty sure she knew who sent the note and what the note said. It was, in fact, a person from her youth. It was from Howard Atterbury, a man she had worked with at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography when she was 18. They had used the code as a kind of fun game to make comments about what was going on in the office. No romance developed between them. She had not heard from Howard for 63 years.
The letter led to phone conversations, which led to a visit, which led one hour later to an engagement, which led to marriage in 2013. The bride was 81, and the groom was 91. What did the coded note say? It said, “I have never stopped loving you.” Howard told CBS news, “Love is a great place to spend the rest of your life.”
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