Woman discovered a secret note in a secondhand book—her heart broke reading a stranger’s message to his mom
Ordinary moments can lead to unexpected discoveries, as surprises come wrapped in the ways we never imagine. In Maryland, something similar happened to a woman named Sydney, who was simply opening a book gifted by her mother. To her surprise, she found a hidden note tucked deep inside its pages—it had a message, not meant for her. Her mother surprised her with "La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman, a book Sydney had been eager to read. She shared the incident under the handle u/kidsyd on Reddit on December 29, 2025. She wrote, “Found in a secondhand book I got for Christmas. I wonder if she ever saw the note.”
found in a secondhand book i got for christmas. i wonder if she ever saw the note:(
byu/kidsyd inFoundPaper
Sydney started reading, unaware that the book carried something more personal than just a printed story. Sydney told Newsweek, “I didn’t even realize it was there until I read up to the page it was tucked into in the middle of the book.” Because it was a secondhand purchase, the discovery made sense. Sydney’s mother bought the book from PangoBooks. “Normally, I feel like you can tell when there’s a paper or a bookmark of some sort in between book pages, but these pages were thick,” the woman said. According to the Reddit post, the note was written by someone to their mother, wishing her “Happy Mother’s Day.” The message read: “Dear Mommy, It will probably be a long time before you find this, but I hope it’s still a pleasant surprise now. You may not think I care, or I simply forgot Mother’s Day – but I didn’t. I love you, Mom. Happy late Mother’s Day.”
The note had a coded message below a signature, “BG.” Sydney shared, “I feel like the note was written by a man to his mom.” After reading the note, Sydney was heartbroken. “I like to think that the mom tucked the note back into the book after she read it, but the way it was folded perfectly in the book and the spine was partially uncracked makes me think that it was never found by its intended recipient.”
“Part of me wonders if the mother passed away before being able to read it,” she said. At first she was confused by the coded part, because she did not know it was a cipher. She thought it was another language. However, when she shared the note on Reddit, the users were intrigued by the secret message. “I want to decode the bottom once I have time. It looks like a shift cipher, potentially,” wrote u/the-friendly-leaf. u/symphonic-ooze said, “Mom likely read this a lot and used this letter as a bookmark.” “Is there a cipher in the book? Maybe you have to read the book to get the cipher clues?” wrote u/lapidariest.
However, with the help of fellow Reddit users, she was finally able to crack the code. The message read, "I hope you like this book. I didn't get a chance to read it yet."