His Discovery
Adam's movements are halted. He attempts to speak but is unable to. He is too preoccupied with the discovery he just made in his parent's farmhouse.
He feels sick to his stomach, yet he is unable to move on with his day and forget about it. He keeps receiving messages from within himself to look more closely.
Secrets
But secrets are supposed to stay buried, right? It was obvious his parents didn’t want anybody to find out about it. That’s why they hid it. But his parents were not there anymore.
And so, Adam reaches for the handle, knowing that nothing will ever be the same after he sees what’s inside; and a terrible feeling hits the pit of his stomach.
He Loved His Parents
Adam Anderson may have been 48 years old, but that didn’t stop him from still appreciating and loving his parents.
After all, they raised and supported him; they did whatever they could to ensure he was happy, putting his well being above their own countless times. Adam could never pay them back all the sacrifices they did for him. Or at least, that’s what he thought.
Skeletons In The Closet
They were there for Adam through heartbreak, divorce, loss and so much more. To Adam, his parents were a pillar of strength; his greatest friends, supporters, and confidants.
However, every family has its own skeletons in the closet, and Adam’s was no exception to the rule. Unfortunately for him, his entire world was about to get turned upside down.
Not Going Well
A few years ago Adam’s parents had to move out of their beloved farm due to their degrading health. They moved to a place closer to health workers who could support them.
Their farm was in Tennessee, in a remote region where there was not much going on. Soon after moving out, unfortunately, Adam was struck with some tragic news.
They Passed Away
After a long and debilitating illness, both of Adam’s parents passed away. Adam was distraught. He couldn’t sleep and he couldn’t eat; he spent the days reminiscing all the moments he had shared with his parents.
They had been there for him through thick and thin, and Adam could barely imagine his life without them. He thought things couldn’t get any worse, but he was so wrong.
Inheritance
After his parents passed away, this meant that the only link to the farmhouse was Adam. He was shocked to find out that his inheritance included the old farmhouse. He thought his parents had sold it.
He delayed it for a long time; he just couldn’t bring himself to visit the old farmhouse again, and there was a reason for that.
Pain
He knew it would be too painful. Visiting the house where he had spent his childhood and where he lived so many moments with his parents would make his grief so much more intense.
But eventually, he came to terms with it. It just had to be done. So he decided to go and pack up their things, unaware of what was waiting for him.
Grief
As he left his home to drive to his parents’ farm, he hummed along to their favorite song on the radio, while a tear trickled down his cheek.
He drove all the way out to the old farmhouse and decided that he would declutter it and restore it to its original glory. Afterward, he would put it up for sale.
Home Sweet Home
Adam was well aware that this was an ambitious undertaking. It would take a lot of time to make the place presentable, take pictures, and liaise with the prospective buyers, but he had to do it. He couldn't afford the old house.
He felt mixed emotions wash over him as he got out of his car and looked at the old farmhouse.
Memories
As soon as he arrived at their home, memories came flooding back to him. He could remember when his father taught him to ride a bike and when he helped his mother make her “world-famous” chocolate chip cookies.
Immersed in nostalgia, Adam lets out a sigh. But then suddenly he remembered something else. Another memory that still haunted him to this today.
What Were They Hiding?
Around five years ago Adam walked in on his mother and father who were in the middle of an argument. They were in the middle of the conversation, so Adam didn’t know what they were arguing about.
But he distinctly remembered his father saying, “no one can ever find out about this.” Then, they noticed he was there and they instantly shut down.
Blast From The Past
His father’s words haunted Adam still to this day. For years, he had wondered what his parents were hiding. He ended up forgetting about it, but all of a sudden, that moment came back to his memory with an incredibly intense vividness.
He shrugged it off and went to start the cleanup, but then he realized what kind of state the house was actually in.
A Bad Condition
The wood of the house was starting to rot and there were webs everywhere. The house didn't even look structurally sound.
Adam started to work on the house. After a few days worth of work, he had done a lot, but there was still much to do, and still so much more to be uncovered.
They Liked To Collect Things
One day, while working on the house, Adam remembered something about his parents that put the house in a new light.
As he looked at the peeling wallpaper and rotting ceiling beams he felt a strange emotion. It was almost like some supernatural force was guiding him toward what would end up being the discovery of his life.
Memory Lane
He looked through his parents' possessions and started to remember fond moments from his childhood. With each item he sorted, he remembered more.
There were many memories in this house - his parents loved to collect things. However, nothing in the world could have ever prepared Adam for the type of “collection” he was about to find.
Gut Feeling
Staring at the closet at the bottom of the stairwell, he felt like there was something in there that was important. As he slowly moved items out of the way inside the closet, there was an old carpet there.
The carpet itself was in a bad state, once he took it out he noticed something in its place - a circular notch on the floor.
What Was Inside?
Under the rug was a round piece of metal on a concrete slab. He became very curious about what lay under the carpet. There was a handle on the item on the floor.
It seemed like a giant plug for the floor, but why? He could no longer wait and pulled hard on the plug to reveal something that was hidden for a long time.
Sealed Shut
It was at that moment then, that Adam realized it was in fact a safe, locked, and hidden beneath the dirty old rug. Unfortunately, the safe was sealed shut.
As he kept trying to get it open for days on end, he finally conceded and asked for help from Tim, the locksmith. But Adam immediately had questions linger in his mind. What was in this safe that it had to be kept a secret?
Terrible Feeling
As Adam sat waiting for the locksmith to arrive, he wondered what exactly he would find inside. Would it be something bad? Or something good?
Adam was stumped. His mind was racing, going through all the possibilities. He took another look at the safe and, right then and there, a terrible feeling hit the pit of his stomach.
Finally Open
Tim the locksmith worked for hours until he finally got the lock off. At last, it was time to see what lay in the safe. What could be so important that it needed to be protected and hidden from everyone?
Adam’s hands trembled as he lifted the safe open and what he saw left him lost for words. He never could have expected this.
More To Be Found
He pulled open the safe to reveal a pile of bricks all surrounded by water. Was this it? Adam suddenly remembered a pipe had burst in the house many years before and flooded a lot of the ground floor.
It must have leaked into the ground floor, Adam thought. But more was to be discovered.
Digging For Answers
This couldn’t be all that lay in the safe, right? There had to be something more. That was what his gut was telling him, and Adam always trusted his instincts.
Adam began to pull out the bricks to reveal an entire time capsule. It looked as though it was something straight out of the 1930s as one of the first things Adam found was a coin book from 1937.
Protected
Sadly, the outside was incredibly damaged, but thankfully the layers had protected the coins inside from the water. In fact, they were almost in pristine condition, like not a day had passed.
It was as if they had just been placed in there. However, that wouldn’t be the last thing Adam would come across in that old and forgotten safe.
Why Was This Here?
Adam continued to dig deeper and deeper, and he found a collection of coin books. It seemed his mother had done a lot of coin collecting.
The books weren’t all that was in the safe. No, Adam soon discovered a variety of coins that had been dumped into the safe along with a collection of water-damaged dollar bills. It kept getting stranger.
High Value
Although many of the coins were standard issue versions, many pieces in the collection were rare coins. It turned out that even the standard finds could still have a high collector’s value if Adam decided to sell them.
His parents hadn’t mentioned any of that in their will, but it seemed like Adam had a treasure in his hands.
A Gold Mine
In fact, they were now worth much more than just their face value, even after being submerged in the water, forgotten for so many years.
It looked as though Adam had stumbled upon a gold mine. However, Adam would soon find out that there was something else than just silver coins hidden in the safe.
His Father’s Collection
It turned out his father had also done some collecting of his own – there were a number of pure silver bars.
To top it off, the silver looked pristine. Adam knew they could be worth a small fortune, especially as they had been protected in their boxes. Examining the bars closer, he noticed something special about them.
Markings
Many of the bars had even been engraved with markings that showcased their true history. Adam was holding onto a piece of the past. That surely would bring the value of those items up.
However, his discoveries were far from over. There was something else waiting for him. What he found next sent a shiver up his spine.
He Had To Look Now
As Adam continued to enjoy all the finds in the safe, he suddenly found something pretty confusing. There was an old box, but it has completely rusted over.
As soon as he laid eyes on the toolbox Adam felt butterflies in his stomach and his throat went dry. He tried to swallow but he couldn’t. He had to see what was inside the toolbox. He had to look now.
Opening The Box
Adam soon managed to pry open the box and find the answers to his questions. It wasn’t filled with tools at all, but instead held a ton of jewelry and pocket watches. Although some of the contents had been affected by the water, most of the pieces were still in good working order.
Adam knew his grandparents must have spent many years collecting everything to fill their secret safe. He just wondered why they had never spoken of their hidden treasures.
Going To Social Media
The family soon all joined in to haul out piece after piece. Adam was amazed by the finds but had no idea where to start. It was time to turn to social media. It was time to ask for their help.
Adam uploaded his finds and asked if the people of the internet would be able to help in any way.
Responses
Soon enough, he received an overwhelming number of responses. Many users offered up ways Adam might be able to save many of the pieces and restore them to their former glory.
Others had bad news. Some users admitted that some of the items might be so severely damaged they would no longer be worth anything to anyone.
Preserving The Memories
Adam knew that he wanted to keep some of the coins. They were the perfect way to remember his late mother.
However, Adam needed a way to preserve the coins and get them back to their former glory. It was the least Adam could do for his mother. But Adam had no idea what else his mother had hidden.
Offering Their Thoughts
Many people were quick to offer help and advice to Adam on how to get the coins back to looking their best. All he needed to do was clean them off, and they would soon be back up to their top value once more.
Little did any of the family know they had been standing over such an extensive collection hidden underneath this house the entire time.
Another Discovery
Adam continued to clear through the rest of the house. After all, the family still needed to get it ready for the real estate agent. He was soon joined by his brother when the pair made another discovery.
Adam had believed the secret safe was the only mystery they would find in the home. Little did they know, there was another safe hiding in plain sight.
It Was In The Coffee Table
Adam and his brother were sitting in the living room, excitedly talking about Adam’s discovery and what he had been told about the coins by people on the Internet, when they suddenly noticed something.
It turned out their father had a safe installed in the same coffee table they were sitting by. It was time to break it open.
Lost For Words
The safe was filled with their father’s pistol collection and even more money. Only this time they weren’t just any dollar bills, but were, in fact, Barr notes.
These special notes were extremely rare and also very valuable; they came with the signature of Joseph W. Barr, who served as Secretary of the Treasury during the last days of President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration.
Rarest Currency
However, he was only in the position for 29 days. It turned out Adam’s father had been able to get hold of the notes and keep them safe.
Now, they were holding some of the rarest currency in the nation, extremely sought after by collectionists and lovers of those types of rarities. However, they were faced with a dilemma.
To Keep Or To Sell?
People all over social media continued to comment on Adam’s photos as they gave their opinion on the items’ worth. It turned out that some of them were worth thousands of dollars while others only had a sentimental value that meant nothing to anyone outside of the family.
Now, Adam just needed to decide if he wanted to sell the finds or keep hold of it all. He had plenty of offers and knew it would be easy to find new owners for many of the pieces.
An Adventure
Adam never knew how clearing out his parents’ house would all of a sudden turn into one of the biggest adventures of his life.
It was almost too good to be true. Now, the family could enjoy looking back at the entire collections that had made their late family memories so happy for so many years.
Grief
It’s hard to imagine how Adam, and then later his brother, must have felt when they found their mother's collection, and then their father's collection on top of that.
When we lose people who were close to us, physical objects are some of the things that help us remember them in that initial period when the grief is still being processed.
Special Treasures
Holding on to something tangible, then, is a way of feeling close to that person. In that sense, the two safes really were treasures – but not in the financial sense.
For Adam and his brother, they would serve as eternal reminders of their elders; what they had gone through, what they had gathered, and what they had passed on to them.
Worth A Lot More
Sentimental value aside, it was clear Adam had items with serious worth on his hands. He hadn’t taken the whole loot to an appraiser yet, but he could only imagine how much it would be worth.
Collectors go wild in bidding for a piece they simply have to have, and a big windfall might be in the family’s future – if they decided to sell.
Dilemma
This was a serious dilemma. On the one hand, there was big money to be made. On the other, these heirlooms belonged to his beloved grandparents and were collections they’d dedicated time and passion to.
Would they have liked for them to be sold off like that or would they rather have their children pass them on to their own children?
A Very Happy Ending
While we certainly have never met Adam’s parents, we might be able to suss out what they’d be thinking in such a situation.
Parents want nothing more than for their family to be happy and secure, both financially and otherwise, and often do everything they can to make sure that happens while they’re still alive.
Sentiments Won’t Change
When they pass, it’s unlikely for these sentiments to change. If they could know Adam or a member of his family could somehow improve their lives, they would probably condone selling off their prized collections.
In order to protect the privacy of those depicted, some names, locations, and identifying characteristics have been changed and are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.