I received a letter this week. Marked strictly personal. Mind you, it was strictly personal to the extent of the right address. And the mrs/mr. So, not really strictly personal.
It was a handwritten letter personally and only for me. Very discretely and in the fullest trust. Dear Sir/Madam... But no name in sight. Right! Here's what it said (literally translated):
In concern to very evil mean uncorrect neigbourhood gossip about 108 by A, B, C, D and E they are screaming "neighbour is crazy etc" even children are being turned etc. Okay, "barking dogs don't bite" the harder people scream... of course people gossip about everybody but this takes the biscuit a lot of people have caught on and an official inquiry has been started discrete information the inquiry has been started to avoid threatening escalation a lot of people are angry in concern to the gossip loudly present etc people wanted to play justice themselves It's tempting to react but that's what people want and would be oil on the fire. We too have passed everything over. The case is being taken very serious. From our research it seems you are closely in this as well... According to our mother not she and we give you the benefit of the doubt. She isn't home often due to illness. On top of that she's mostly lost her voice. After years of struggle she is now losing the battle and there isn't much understanding for how her illness progresses and the taboo is great.
The gossip rests on this and other things like alcohol, money etc. public secrets play a big part in this and if things don't go as planned you get more of this gossip
Okay today us at number 108 tomorrow...
But time is moving too fast for her and we want rest.
Our apologies for the disturbance
we hope you won't see this as gossip, that's not what we meant at all! everybody has something good in them. We just wanted to let you know.
in general we love living here and it's quiet when the gossip club isn't complete or absent. that's a fact
the children of the crazy neighbour
her name is Wilma by the way
Well, if anybody can shed any light? Since I don't know what they're talking about or even who they are talking about!
Sounds like some crazy going on!
ReplyDeleteYou really don't know who they are talking about?
Say what, indeed! Ask your neighbors and see if they've received the same letter. This might be interesting detective work. It reads like the writer is not fully competent in the language (Dutch) which might be a hint...
ReplyDeleteI want to say something but don't know what to say - maybe I just said it.
ReplyDeleteI'll keep my opinion to myself, I wouldn't want to be accused of gossiping to loudly. : )
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a nice week-end.
OK_ I read second grader so I can semi understand this. Some people (neighborhood gossips) are talking about this person's mom. So this person is saying that his mom isn't crazy- but she's sick. So please stop talking about her.
ReplyDeleteHad it been an email, I would have said it was a Nigerian trying to scam money in some way. :)
Apparently, this person's mom says you don't gossip about her. So that's good. But they wanted to let you know that they or the police are investigating the rumor mill before things "escalate"
ReplyDeletereally sounds like someone is saying some evil nasty stuff about Wilma and her illness.
At first I thought of the Nigerian scam as well. But Wilma doesn't sound Nigerian to me. ;-)
ReplyDeleteMissed this one completely. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! K might be right. She's better in reading child's writing than I am. Couldn't cook soup from it ;-) Hmm, interesting!