Family Life

Woman accidentally buys back a book she sold after her mother died, and finds a secret message

Sarah-Raspberry Farmer was just 14 when she sadly lost her mother, Christine Sexton, back in 2013. Christine, who was addicted to crystal meth, took her own life while she was in prison. 

The 41-year-old had been in and out of prison before; the first time she was released, the mum gifted her daughter a number of books which she used to explain her addiction and love for her. 

"After she got out she gave me a bag of books to read. Books that might help me get why she was there. Or things she thought I would love," Sarah explained in a post on Reddit.

"She would read them and highlight specific passages in pink highlighter. Things she wanted to say to me but didn't know how."

However, while the teenager managed to read most of the books, House of Leaves proved to be a hard one to get through, so Sarah decided to sell it. 

I bought the same book i sold almost 5 years ago, and I found my mother's last words to me. from r/books

Five years later, the now 19-year-old felt it was a good time to give the book another go, and went to a used bookshop that she had never been to before. 

It was here that she picked up the shop's only copy of the book. 

"Last week I went to the half price books in Arlington one I had never been to. I bought the house of leaves. And it too was nibbled on in the right corner and had paint.

"I shrugged it off doubting it could possibly be the same book. I started reading it and now I can't seem to stop. There have been more than a few coincidences at this point."

However, when she started looking through the book, Sarah noticed that a number of the pages were highlighted in pink.

One of the passages, in particular, really touched her. 

"I started skimming thru the book out of boredom… and I found passages highlighted in pink… and one of the passages read: "I took my morning walk, I took my evening walk, I ate something, I thought about something, I wrote something, I napped and I dreamt something too, and with all that something, I still have nothing because so much of sum'things has always been and always will be you. I miss you.[sic]"

"It may just be coincidence however I'm going to believe that somehow she knew I needed comfort. And somehow she got this book back to me."

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