Off and on for nearly seven decades, a Jefferson City woman has been puzzled after receiving a nearly 600-year-old gift accompanied by a cryptic note.
Now 85, Sue Overland is making one more attempt at solving a mystery from far in her past.
"My time is running out," she said. "If I want to find out, I better start doing it."
When she was a high school senior in 1946, Overland's class started a pen pal program - students picked from a box containing the names and addresses of foreigners their age. They were asked to write to the person they picked.
Overland picked the name of a young man in Hasselt, Belgium, named Marcel Hendrickx, and she began a written correspondence with him that lasted several years in the mid-1940s. He was an only child from a well-to-do family. He spoke six or seven languages.
They exchanged photos, and he sent her original artwork that he had painted. She returned the favor. He asked her to come to Belgium to meet him, but she declined. "He got kind of romantic, but at that age, I wasn't interested," she said.
They kept in contact through high school, through Overland's 7½-year stint in the U.S. Air Force, and even after she became married. It wasn't until she had children that she lost contact with him.
But before they lost contact, an odd thing happened: He sent her a centuries-old parchment. The document was written in a foreign language. "He told me to keep it, that it was very important, and his parents didn't know that he was sending it to me."
She kept the brownish, folded document in her jewelry box. Occasionally, she would take it out and look at it, wondering more and more what it could be.
But it was only later in life, after raising her children, that she started actively seeking answers. She contacted historians, including the ambassador of the Belgium Historical Society, as well as academics and other experts. She has even tried to contact Hendrickx, her long-lost pen pal, to no avail.
She wrote to his former address, asking that the letter be forwarded. She also found 10 people named "Marcel Hendrickx" in Belgium, and wrote to each. One, a 40-year-old, wrote back. He wasn't a relation to her pen pal, but offered her information: the language obviously wasn't Dutch, but might be an old French dialect.
Belgium has three official languages - Dutch, French and German - much to the chagrin of many of its citizens.
But she hasn't been able to reach Hendrickx, who would now be around 85 - nearly a decade past the life expectancy for men.
Now, she's making a renewed effort, with the help of both of her sons. They're trying to contact other experts on the subject of historical documents, and they're using the Internet to search for clues and for help.
So far, no one has been able to tell her exactly what it is, although some have given her clues.
She now knows that it is written in an ancient French dialect, and that it is dated in March 1419. She has also found someone who was able to transcribe bits and pieces of the document. Transcribed words include "Liege, Belgium," "king" and "marriage."
Her best guess at this point is that it might be a marriage license. But if it is, that doesn't explain why it is an important document, and why it was preserved since the Middle Ages.
"I'm going to be 86 this month, and my time's running out. So I would love to know what it is. It's just curiosity," she said.
If you have information that could be helpful to Overland's search, contact her at 573-893-3285.