A North Carolina couple have revealed the emotional discovery they made a few months after moving into their new home together.
There’s an old adage about how a “home is more than a house.” It may sound corny to some, but it’s a sentiment that will ring true for those with fond memories of the homes they grew up in.
Because these houses were so much more than just homes to them. They were the place they grew up in, a place full of the memories of both the seminal and sentimental moments that color our lives.
These houses stay with us in adulthood, to the point that some even try to, quite literally, go back. According to The Atlantic, when Jerry M. Burger, a Santa Clara University psychologist, was conducting hundreds of interviews for his 2011 book Returning Home: Reconnecting With Our Childhoods, he found around a third of those he interviewed had revisited childhood homes as adults while the same proportion hoped to do so.
Branden Gurganus from North Carolina and his wife moved into their new home late last year, but it was only recently that they discovered a heartwarming memento from the previous owners.
It’s a memento Gurganus chose to reveal on TikTok in a video posted under the handle bgurganus252, which has already been watched over 2.9 million times.
In the video, which you can watch here, Gurganus reveals what the couple found scrawled inside a seemingly ordinary cabinet in their new home.
Opening up the doors of the cabinet, Gurganus reveals how a series of messages have been scrawled inside. The messages, which appear to have been written by at least two young girls called Megan and Erin, serve as a time capsule of their experiences in the house.
One reads “Merry Christmas” while another declares they “finally graduated high school.” Perhaps most heartbreaking of all is the message one of the girls writes stating: “we don’t fit anymore.”
Gurganus then opens one of the cabinets alongside the first to reveal yet more messages. A series of dates appear with the year 2008 featuring in both of the cabinets.
Writing alongside the video, Gurganus said: “My wife and I purchased a house last year and found this hidden away and decided not to paint over it. Maybe one day we’ll let our own daughter sign it.”
Branden Gurganus revealing heartwarming discovery he made inside one of the cabinets in his new home.
TikTok/bgurganus252
The video struck a chord with many on TikTok. One user commented: “I bought a house in November. The previous owner left the height chart on the door frame from their kids. I can’t bring myself to paint it so I started my kids’ height on the other side.”
Another said: “The house I have, in my son’s closet. it says, Josh was here 2004, max was here 2009, Issac was here 2021. We bought the house. It’s all the previous sons’ bedrooms. I’ve left it.”
Even more amazing still, through the power of TikTok and the video going viral, it appears at least one of the girls, who is now an adult, was tracked down and even commented on the video.
A user claiming to be Erin said: “Wow TikTok is crazy! This has brought tears to my eyes this morning, this was my grandparents old house. Me and my cousin wrote in those cabinets for years. Thank you so much for this. I would love to see what you all have done with the house!”
Another user, called G Jackson also shared his connection to the house. “That was my mom and dad’s house. It was my daughter and niece that spent all that time in those cabinets. Thanks for sharing.”
Our childhood homes will change in any number of ways after we leave them, but it’s nice to know that some are happy to preserve these small tokens of the past.