The Tearjerking Note the Former Owners Left Behind

Laura Rudd and her husband purchased their first home in Lincolnshire, England in 2020. It was an exciting time for the young couple, filled with anticipation and big dreams for their future.

But while it was the start of their new beginning it was a bittersweet end of an era for another family. One that had lived a lifetime within those walls.

To celebrate the new owners, the sellers left behind a handwritten note, offering a glimpse into the history and heart of the house Laura and her husband now called their own.

Laura told Newsweek that they discovered the note on the kitchen counter, propped up with a bottle of Prosecco on moving day.

In a now-viral TikTok, she shares the heartfelt note with nearly 2 million viewers, and we're alllllllll sobbing.

"Welcome to your new home," the letter begins. The author shares that the house has been their family home "since the mid-50s" and "Mum & Dad raised all four of us children in these four walls."

It continues:

"In the following years there has been so much happiness and love and sadly a little grief too, hence where we are today. But in all of these years, the thing that resounds the most is the laughter, and there was so much of that with family, relatives and friends."

The letter ends with touching best wishes, "So on behalf of all of us ... I sincerely wish you all the happiness this wonderful home has to offer, not to mention the stunning outlook and views."

While the letter was a surprise to Laura, its sentiments were not.

"It was obvious from when we first looked around the house that it was very loved," Laura told PEOPLE. "It must have been a hard sell."

Response to the Touching Note

The heartfelt letter "hit home" with viewers, quickly going viral and garnering over 110,000 likes and nearly 1200 comments.

"Omg sobbing! Enjoy your new home xx," wrote one commenter.

"This made me cry! How lovely!" said another.

Other commenters shared their own stories:

"A couple were outside my house taking photos, asked them why and it was his grandad's first house, obvs I invited them in for a tour. Mrs said 'we’ll be robbed in days to come,' but I got an email from him showing his grandad in a hospice watching the video and reliving memories. Priceless and was free for me to do," wrote one.

Another shared, "This happened to me once I was getting a cab home and the cab driver said oh my god I grew up in your house he was emotional. Asking me did I keep the roses and the flowers ...I did indeed."

And a third said, "This happened to us. The elderly parents passed and we bought it off the daughters, it was their childhood home. A builder had put a higher offer in than us but they refused his offer and took our lower offer because they wanted us and our 3 young children to have the house and it continues to be a happy family home. They left us a photograph of their parents and a lovely card with a similar msg."

Paying it Forward

For four years, the house looked after Laura and her husband well. They got married there and got a dog. And eventually, it's where they found out they were going to be parents.

Over the years, the note wasn't the only treasure they discovered.

"We found many little pockets of love when renovating, such as a note under the wallpaper saying, 'I did this 18/12/65' and there were names carved into cement where they'd installed a door as a later date," Laura shared.

Recently, the couple sold the home to new owners, gifting them the letter from the original owners as well as their own. They hope it's just the start of an incredible tradition.

There's an old saying, "Home is where the heart is." However, it fails to mention that even after we move on, there's always a little piece of that heart that gets left behind, forever a part of the place we once called "Home."