CHESTER, Vt. – Chester resident Anna Kendall moved into her home on Mountain View Road 10 years ago, and found a box full of old letters, postcards, and newspaper clippings stored on a shelf in the basement, addressed to Christine Mueller. Kendall held on to the box, hoping some day she could return it. “I couldn’t bring myself to throw away someone else’s precious memories. I know I would be devastated if I lost all mine.”
This spring, during her semiannual cleaning, Kendall came across the box again, and reached out to Jon Clark, president of the Chester Historical Society, to see if he could help. The historical society took a few days, and “miraculously [they] found her!” Kendall exclaimed.
Mueller had moved to Andover, Vt., in the ’80s, after graduating from college in Madison, Wis. She had decided that she did not want to go to graduate school, and, being heartsick from a breakup, she needed a change of scenery. Lauren, a friend from high school, lived in Belmont and worked at Crowley Cheese Factory. Mueller made the move to Belmont, and shortly after relocated to Andover, where she lived and worked on Lydia Ratcliff’s farm, Lovejoy Brook Farm. Mueller said she always had a desire to work on a farm.
During her stay in Andover, Mueller would write back and forth with friends, an old boyfriend, and family. Mueller saved all of these letters and various other memories. She later moved around in Chester, and for five years she lived in the house on Mountain View Road. She moved out in 2006, leaving behind the box of memories and relocating to Florida. She thought that anything she left behind was gone.
Two decades later, having survived various occupants of the Chester home, the box was returned. Kendall and Mueller corresponded, and planned a date in October when Mueller could retrieve the box while she would be visiting the area. Unfortunately, Kendall explained, she had to work that day and could not meet Mueller. But they each took a photo with the box and shared it with one another.
“It’s quite a sweet story,” Mueller said, thankful to be able to go back down memory lane. “This is a real chunk of history from when I first moved to Andover…a lot of stories generated from Lydia’s farm.” She recalled and pieced together how she knew each person from each letter. “Memories were flooding.”
Kendall thought about how Mueller’s letters were dated “from the ‘80s, when she was living on Lydia Ratcliff’s farm, and all the while I lived right up the road from her that whole time as a kid. Strange how the world turns.”