Unopened Gift From Ex Under Tree For 50 Years, Until Wife Finally Puts Foot Down

A Vow

On the very same day that she broke up with him she gave him a hand wrapped gift meant for Christmas, which was just around the corner, and he vowed never to open it.

Now almost 50 years later we’ll find out the truth. Did he open it, or not?

Only 17 Years Old

He was a 17-year-old senior at George S. Henry Secondary School in Toronto, Canada when he met and began dating his first serious girlfriend and first love. Her name was Vicki Allen.

As with most high school romances they were together for a long enough time for there to be some painful feelings when Vicki broke things off. The first cut really is the deepest.

Every Christmas

As young love often does he made a vow – to never open the hand wrapped package, at least not until they got back together.

He would open it then. But the two never did get back together and so the package was slowly forgotten over the months until Christmas day each year.

Their Own Families

The two fell out of touch and both married other people, forgetting those days of young flitting love, but each year Adrian Pearce, now a married father of two, put that gift under the Christmas tree along with all the others.

But this gift was never destined to actually be opened.

Different Paths

Adrian’s wife eventually put an end to the tradition by banning it from being under the tree – it is, after all, a strange thing for a married man to do and besides, the kids kept pestering to open it themselves.

“After my family opened their gifts at Christmas, there was still one Christmas gift left and it’s the gift this girl Vicki had given me. I told my family I’m never going to open that present,” Adrian told his family.

High Hopes

But even though Adrian was no longer allowed to put the gift under the tree any more he still looked at it as it got closer to Christmas time each year. “I kept it initially because I guess I had hopes that we would get back together and open it together,” Adrian said.

“Now it’s just become a habit after 47 years of looking at it and having the pleasure of not opening it.

A Lot Of Attention

For some reason, Adrian posted a picture of the wrapped gift on Facebook along with the story and it got a lot more attention than even he dreamed possible, everyone wanted to know what was inside.

“Maybe I don’t want to know what’s inside it. It’s more exciting right now not opening the thing,” he said.

Not The One

After posting the story online he decided he would try to find his old flame and began to look her up on social media.

The internet search threw up a lot of numbers and he even called a woman with the same name in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, but she was 91 years old and clearly not the lady he was looking for.

A Quick Catch Up

“I was almost shaking I was so nervous,” he said when he eventually dialed the correct number. He didn’t get through the first two times he tried calling but the third time is the charm and finally, he got hold of Vicki.

The two caught up over the phone and decided on an interesting way for the gift to finally be opened.

A Decision

Adrian and Vicki decided to open the gift after 48 years during a fundraiser for the Christmas Bureau of Edmonton, which raises money for needy families, but with a twist… You see Adrian swore he would never open that gift and he was not changing his mind almost 50 years later.

So, how would it be done?

Vicki Would Do It

Well, Vicki would open it of course. On a Thursday she traveled to the city and opened it for him. Standing next to him on stage in a packed cafe northwest of the city with his wife Janet watching in the audience.

It was so long ago that even she didn’t know what she had given him and when she opened the wrapping she exclaimed, “Oh no! I can’t give that to him!”

Love Is

The gift was a book entitled, “Love Is: New Ways to Spot That Certain Feeling.” Which is rather inappropriate as Victoria herself admits in an interview, “I do not recall buying the book, I do not recall wrapping the book, and certainly don’t recall the book itself.

In hindsight it couldn’t have been more inappropriate under the circumstances, it couldn’t have been less careless of his feelings and it just goes to show how ignorant a 15-year-old can be.”

A Story Behind The Story

The reason why Victoria didn’t want to give him the book was also discussed at that same interview.

“Well yes it is a bit of a surprise, and yet I know the backstory that on the day that Victoria was buying this gift for me she fell for the other guy, so she figured she’d got the present for Adrian so I might as well just give it to him.”

While Out Shopping

It turned out that while Vicki was shopping for Adrian’s gift at the mall, she met another boy and he kissed her on the spot. “It wouldn’t have been so bad, but I kissed him back,” Victoria said. She said she knew Adrian would find out she had betrayed him. She knew it was over between them.

“It was a very innocent relationship. We were in high school,” Vicki explained about her relationship with Adrian. “I didn’t know he felt as intensely as he did.”

Prove It

When Adrian was asked how he had finally found Vicki he had a bit to say on the matter, “It took quite a long time to establish a relationship again, I had to prove to her who I was and she had to prove to me that she was who she said she was.”

And there was a simple way to do just that.

Mannerisms

“There were three woman who said they were her and we had to check them out because I asked them very specific questions about something we might have done on a date,” Adrian said.

“Two of them didn’t answer this one did, and then we connected by telephone and as soon as I heard her voice and her kinda mannerisms, I was pretty sure it was her.”

An Understatement

“Are you surprised that Adrian kept this present, putting under the tree year after year?” Asked a reporter.

“Surprised is a bit of an understatement. Shocked! When I first heard about it I was astounded that anybody would hold a grudge that long or possibly remember me that long, or even be able to stand the temptation that long.”

A New Book

He’s since written a book about the whole experience, and his wife and Allen contributed chapters.”I think it’s absolutely fantastic that we’re friends. My wife is friends with Vicki,” Adrian told the crowd.

“We’re in a fantastic place where all you can feel is love.” But now many people wonder: just how does his wife really feel?

Good Wife

Adrian still placed the dog-eared gift under the tree every Christmas because he enjoyed the mystery of it, but eventually, his wife put her foot down when their daughter, then five, wanted to open it. “She said, ‘Daddy, when you die, I’ll be able to open it then, right?’ I told him he could keep it, but we just didn’t want the gift out in public,” she explained.

“I’m pretty secure in our relationship. I’ve never been jealous.”

A Small World

And all of this came to be due to a friend who knew them both in high school. He sent Victoria a link to one of the many articles written about it. Vicki responded by clicking “like” on some of Adrian’s Facebook posts, and Adrian figured out who it was.

They got in touch, and eventually, Adrian and his wife were invited to meet her. What a small world.