In Canada: A Gift Received by a Man from the Girl Who Rejected Him Almost 50 Years Ago Will Be Opened on Christmas Day

Photo by John Lucas/Edmonton Journal

Perhaps this is the longest time a gift was kept intact: almost 50 years. A man from Edmonton, Alberta while away the years of trying to keep the gift untouched for almost half a century from a girl who rejected him in his youth.

In 1970, the then 17-year old Adrian Pearce was looking forward to Christmas break. In the most unfortunate timing, his then-girlfriend, the very first serious relationship he ever had parted ways with him.

” She gave me a present at the same time and I took home. I had a long walk home and I was all upset and angry and all the things you feel when somebody breaks up with you,” Pearce recalled.

” And so I fired the present under the Christmas tree. After my family had opened their gifts at Christmas, there was still one Chrismas gift left and it’s the gift this girl Vicki had given me. I told my family I will never going to open that present,”  he recounted to Calgary Sun.

Years later, Vicki’s younger sister approached Pearce, in what was an attempt to rekindle the flame, but it never happened, and they lost touch soon after.

For many years, it became a tradition for Pearce to put the present under the tree, even after he got married and had children. Until his wife halted the yearly habit saying: ” The gift is not welcome under the tree anymore.”

The gift was dusted off, still wrapped in a faded, yet shiny blue paper, and “just looks at it before putting it away again,” The Canadian Press reports.

This year, he found the old phone numbers and called them.

“I was almost shaking I was nervous, ” he said.

Pearce wasn’t so sure what to say to Vicki if she answered the phone. He used his middle name, Mike, so he’d never have to explain anything. He is unsure why he kept the gift after all.

He doesn’t know what is inside the box. Some of the packaging tapes weren’t sticky anymore because there was a time when Pearce was tempted to open it only to stop himself.

” Maybe I don’t want to know what’s inside it. It’s more exciting right now not opening the thing.”

Pearce wife liked the idea and likes the air of mystery the unopened present conjure.

He said he is looking forward to the 50th anniversary of receiving the gift and will have a guessing game what is inside the box, with an entry fee which proceeds go to a Christmas charity.

Pearce is wishing Vicki will be around at the time of the opening to be part of the celebration.

Source: Calgary Sun