1. What did you find?
My husband is the one who really found the first items. He found these wooden toys. About a month later, we found a letter, too.
2. Where did you find these items?
In the ceiling of our living room, which is also the floor in a second-story bedroom. That is where the girl actually put it — under the floorboards in her room. So, it was the space between the second-story floor and the living room ceiling.
3. What were you doing that you found these items?
Over New Year's, our ceiling started falling in because it’s really old. My husband started replacing it this past summer. When he started digging into it to fix the wiring, he found the wooden toys first, and then as we pulled more down, we found the piece of paper and it was this note written from Jean Gerber.
4. How long have you lived in this particular house?
We’ve been there about two and a half years, roughly. It was originally built — we think — in the 1890s. It’s a really old house. The living room is part of the original house, so it’s the oldest part of the house.
5. You have kids right?
Yes, we have a 12-year-old daughter, 8- and 6-year-old sons and another daughter who is 3 years old.
6. What were your kids’ reactions to finding this stuff?
I don’t know — they thought it was kind of neat. I think my husband and I had more of a reaction than they did.
7. Did you try to find the person who wrote the note?
Yes, we did. I was able on Facebook to write to the lady who knows a lot of people and history in Bluffton. She was able to tell me exactly who Jean Gerber was. My mom also found some information about her just from other people in town. It’s a small town, you know. Our house is known as the Gerber house, even though they haven’t lived there for 30 years. When we bought it, it was called the Gerber house.
8. How did that turn out — contacting Jean Gerber?
Well, I emailed her, and didn’t get a response. I think she actually called the lady I got information from and talked to her. She [Jean Gerber] actually talked to her a little bit about it because Jean’s health hasn’t been very good recently. She seemed very excited about it, but she didn’t remember putting the stuff in there, but she was only 12 years old when she did.
9. Are you planning on meeting Jean Gerber?
At this point, I am planning on sending the stuff with a lady named Wendy Chapel-Dick because she’s planning on going down to visit her daughter who goes to school around where Jean Gerber lives — that’s down in Virginia.
10. Have you looked around in hopes of finding anything else?
No, but the house is very interesting. When we pulled down the walls, we found the original doorway, and they had put a book shelf in using the baseboards. I don’t know — there are some really interesting things they had done with the house.
