Sister realizes stranger leaving flowers at late brother's grave for over 70 years was with him the night he died

Losing a loved one is never easy, especially when the incident happens unexpectedly. A woman had lost her brother at a very young age, but had seen little signs on her brother's grave that showed her that people cared for him deeply, even when he had been gone for more than 70 years. However, she knew nothing about this person or the people who left flowers, poems and more on the grave and tended to it, per BBC News. Over 70 years later, she was surprised to find the person after she left a message.

The woman, Ann Kear's brother, Karl Smith, was 12 years old when he drowned during a scouting trip in 1947. He was then buried at St. Mary Church in Prestbury near Cheltenham, England. Flowers and poems were left at the grave for almost 20 years, when Kear decided to find out who was leaving them there. "They're never signed, so someone wishes to remain incognito, but I would love to speak to them." The sister was 7 years old when she lost her brother to a drowning incident and would have loved to talk about her brother to someone. "I would love to speak to them, remembering Karl would be wonderful — absolutely wonderful."

Smith went on a scouting trip to Oxwich Bay near Swansea in August 1947. They stopped at a village and were instructed not to go inside the water. "Boys being boys, they apparently saw the sea, wanted to get in and so they were in. But when they got them back out, there was one missing and that was Karl. They searched and he was face down in the water," Kear explained. She visited her brother's grave every Christmas, but for several years, she found things someone else had put on the grave. "It's either a sprig of holly, sometimes it's been a little sheaf of corn nicely wrapped and also some words of tribute — quotations from a poem. This time, the grave has been tended and some flowers have been planted."

She laminated the message and asked the person to come forward around 2008, but nobody came forward, at least until 2015. "They're never signed, but it's very neat writing and sort of an elderly hand," Kear said. In 2017, a BBC Stories investigation revealed that the flowers were from one of Smith's former childhood friends. The man was 84 years old when he finally got in touch with his late childhood friend's sister. However, there was still no information about the person who had left poems and quotes at the grave.

The sister was grateful to have discovered that Ronald Seymour-Westborough from Gloucester was the one leaving the flowers. Seymour-Westborough revealed that Karl had been one of his closest friends at that time, and the two of them had shared a tent the night before he died. He also found him face down inside the sea on that fateful day. Seymour-Westborough shared that he had no idea that Kear was looking for him, and he did not know that his friend had a little sister either. The outlet's investigation had tracked him at his Gloucester home.