A few weeks after buying the house next door, a New Jersey woman and her daughter discovered a heartfelt handwritten message on the pantry wall from the home’s previous owners. The message brought the woman, who had known the prior occupants, close to tears.
Susan Marie Smuzinsky of Newfield told The Epoch Times that their kitchen has a “very large pantry” that is almost like a closet. She said that her daughter saw the message on the inside wall while putting things away.
“I was at work and she texted me the picture,” Susan said.
The message, said Susan, gave her goosebumps and brought tears to her eyes.
Susan had lived next door in the rural neighborhood for some time. She said her next-door neighbors were an elderly couple whom she had known, but not fully well. They had raised their family in that house since purchasing it in 1971.
Sadly, the husband passed away from cancer, and the wife entered supported living a few years later. Their home remained empty for some time, but when it was placed on the market, curiosity got the better of Susan.
“I was being nosy and looked up the listing,” she said. “It was so cheap and the pictures were adorable. We made an appointment to see it, thinking my younger daughter might be interested.”
Susan said though her daughter wasn’t interested in living there, she herself fell in love with the home as she walked in for the first time.
She put in an offer, hoping nobody offered higher. Luckily, Susan’s offer was accepted. Luckier still, the timing turned out to be perfect: Susan’s other daughter was keen to move in.
Nothing could convince Susan that it wasn’t the perfect purchase.
Susan said that the day she closed on the house, they had had a few bad storms and almost six inches of water in the basement since the electricity had been off, and the sump pump couldn’t run. The oil tank leaked and the hot water heater fried, but still, Susan was delirious.
“I didn’t care. I was giddy,” she said.
The proud new owner got a new furnace, had the hot water heater converted to gas, and got a French drain and two new sump pumps installed. She then had new windows and doors put in, before turning her focus toward cleaning up the yard.
Susan said she “loved every minute” of it.
Head over heels with the property next door, Susan only hopes that if ever its previous owners drive by, they will see their precious home is being loved and lived in, just as it was loved and lived in before.
Neither she nor her daughter have plans to remove the message on the wall.
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