// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Child's hidden letter found after 44 years
The letter would have been written before Michelle Harwood was born
A letter written by a 10-year-old girl in the 1980s and hidden in the cavity of the stairs at her home has been found 44 years later.
The house in Hockley, Essex, was undergoing renovation work when a worker found the scrap of paper and passed it to Michelle Harwood, who now lives there.
Filled with curiosity, the 36-year-old charity worker examined it - noting "really neat" handwriting for a child - and posted on her local Facebook community group on Thursday morning to track down the author.
Within an hour, multiple people had found and tagged Rachel Miles, now a 54-year- old teacher in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. And she responded.
The BBC contacted Miles almost half a century after she wrote the letter.
She explained that time capsules were popular in the 1980s because of the influence of Blue Peter, and recalled writing the letter after her dad found a cavity behind the stairs.
"I just thought it would be quite nice to basically post a letter for the future and I'm obviously quite delighted to see that someone had found it," she said.
Harwood said she had "goosebumps" when she read the words
Miles said it was "lovely" reliving her Essex childhood and "really nice" to see how many people remembered her, despite her moving out of the county.