How An Online Forum Helped A Girl Solve The Mystery Of Late Grandma's Secret Letter
Feel Good Friday: This girl's family could not solve the mystery of their dead grandmother's coded letter for nearly 18 years. With the help of the internet, it took them only 14 minutes to finally know what her grandmother had been trying to tell them.
By Mei Mei Chu — 24 Jan 2014, 06:30 PM — Updated almost 11 years ago
Janna Holm's grandmother passed away in 1996, and left the family a mysterious coded letter the family could not solve for nearly 20 years
When Janna Holm's grandmother died 18 years ago, she left her grandkids with a puzzle - index cards filled with random, indecipherable sequences of letters.
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Holm and her family spent months trying to solve the puzzles to no avail; they eventually stopped trying. That was until Holm's father happened across one of the cards several days ago.
mashable.com
The index card-sized letter was filled with indecipherable sequence of alphabets on both the front and back pages
In Jan 2014, Holm decided to ask netizens on Ask MetaFilter and was surprised by how helpful the online community is
Holm's father recently found one of the cards, and Holm, who loves puzzles, decided to delve into the project once again. She asked for help Monday on MetaFilter.com, a community blog, thinking her grandmother may have been trying to remember lyrics, and that each letter stood for a word in a song.
usatoday.com
They managed to crack the code in 14 minutes
“Holy cow! 14 minutes to solve the back of the card that has been bugging my family for 20 years! That is amazing!” She typed. “I never thought of her as super religious, but we did grow up in a Lutheran household, so that makes sense. Any further insights on the front of the card?”
fox4kc.com
It started with one user recognising the code "OFWAIH" as a long acronym for a Christian Prayer: "Our Father who art in heaven'.."
One user, “harperpitt,” was the first to point out to Holm that its meaning could be of religious origin.
“Was she a religious woman? The last As, as well as the AAA combo, make me think of ‘Amen, amen, amen.’ So extrapolating — TYAGF = ‘Thank you Almighty God for…’ It would make sense to end with ‘Thank you, Almighty God, for everything, Amen – Thank you, Almighty God, for everything, Amen, Amen, Amen,’” posted the user, who went on to decode the back of the card as the Lord’s Prayer.
fox4kc.com
Holm slowly realised that her grandmother had wrote a personal prayer to the family in codes
Holm guessed it might be a personal prayer. Using her own deductions and comments from the website, Holm compiled a prayer in which her grandmother was giving thanks, and praying that her loved ones would be safe, happy and healthy.
usatoday.com
"I think at this point, it's basically a personal prayer of [my grandma's] ... so I don't know if anyone is going to be able to truly decode the whole thing," Holm told Mashable during a phone call on Tuesday. " It's nice to just have an idea of what it is It's nice to just have an idea of what it is and what, in general terms, an idea of what she was thinking about in her last couple weeks."
mashable.com
Holm slowly realised that her grandmother had wrote a personal prayer to the family in codes
Image via imgur.comWhy did grandma use codes?
Holm said she's not sure why her grandmother used a code, but perhaps, as her memory was fading, she used it as a "cheat sheet" to help recall prayers.
usatoday.com
Although much of the codes are still a mystery as it could be grandma's personal words, Holm is happy to finally have an idea of what her grandmother had been thinking of during her final days
"It was kind of relieving to have an answer, even if we don't know what every single word says," Janna Holm, who posted the card, said. "It's nice to know that they were prayers, and kind of gave some insight into what she was thinking and what she was focused on in her last couple weeks."
usatoday.com
Holm's grandmother passed away due to brain cancer when Holm was about 9 years old. Grandma could not talk during her last two weeks, but managed to scribble 20 index cards for the family.
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In my grandmother's final days battling brain cancer, she became unable to speak and she filled dozens of index cards with random letters of the alphabet. I'm beginning to think that they are the first letters in the words of song lyrics, and would love to know what song this was. This is a crazy long shot, but I've seen Mefites pull off some pretty impressive code-breaking before!"
metafilter.com
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My grandmother passed away in 1996 of a fast-spreading cancer. She was non-communicative her last two weeks, but in that time, she left at least 20 index cards with scribbled letters on them. My cousins and I were between 8-10 years old at the time, and believed she was leaving us a code. We puzzled over them for a few months trying substitution ciphers, and didn't get anywhere."
metafilter.com
Ask MetaFilter users say it was an honour to help Holm solve her grandmother's final good wishes for the family
Several of the forum's users even posted a note thanking "JannaK" for letting the forum help solve the family's mystery.
"Many of us enjoy solving mysteries for their own sake, but it's a real honour to help you decipher something so lovely as your grandmother's final good wishes for you and your family," the user "embrangled" wrote.
mashable.com