* This Man Prevented Himself From Opening His Christmas Present For Half A Century For This Reason
A long, long time ago, when they were young teens, Adrian Pearce and Vicki Allen dated each other. But while this story has a "happily ever after" ending, it doesn’t proceed like most high school sweetheart stories we hear about.
After dating for a short while, Pearce and Allen separated, but Pearce hadn't forgotten about his high school darling. A wrapped Christmas gift she gave him was kept through the decades to come in its established spot under his tree.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
For almost 50 years, the only connection the two had was through this unopened present. But why did Pearce keep the gift wrapped for so long? Keep reading to discover the reason!
The Beginning
Both students at George S. Henry Secondary School in Toronto, Ontario, Adrian Pearce and Vicki Allen met and began dating shortly after, in the 1970s.
It was the first serious relationship for each of them so they weren't sure what to expect. Allen was 15, two years younger than Pearce, but it still seemed that Pearce was doing the chasing. He knew their relationship was meant to be, and couldn't wait to spend a lot more time with her during the winter break.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
Unfortunately, Allen had another idea.
All I Want For Christmas
Pearce and Allen were finishing up classes and getting ready for winter holidays in 1971. Pearce was looking for the perfect gift for his sweetheart, when Allen called to tell him she wanted to break up and subsequently broke his heart.
Pearce was completely caught by surprise. Till then, he had thought their relationship was going to last forever. But it seemed like it wasn't meant to be.
Image by @unopenedpresent / Facebook
Five decades later, he would finally learn Allen's motives for breaking it off.
One Last Gift
Although Allen had made the decision to leave Pearce, she gifted him his wrapped Christmas present before she ended the relationship.
Image by @unopenedpresent / Facebook
Pearce didn't dare open the gift when he received it, and ended up keeping it under the tree with all of his other gifts. He had a change of heart after Allen broke up with him and what began as a memento of his former girlfriend, started a new Christmas tradition for most of his adult life.
A Promise
Pearce went home grief stricken after Allen ended the relationship. Just before the romantic winter break could begin, he'd been dumped by the girl of his dreams. Some Christmas this was shaping up to be, he thought.
After all the presents were unwrapped on Christmas day, one gift, wrapped in shiny blue wrapping paper stayed behind. It was Allen's gift, and Pearce just wasn't ready to open it.
Image by Bruno Glätsch / Pixabay
Heartbroken, he promised himself that he would never open her present, no matter the appeal. And so began the tradition of keeping Allen's wrapped gift under the tree.
A Ritual
The first year Pearce didn't open Allen's present, it was because he was heartbroken and couldn't handle it. The next year, though, he couldn't make sense of it, but he still couldn't open it. The third year the parcel made its way under his tree, it had just become a tradition.
The clear tape yellowed a bit more with each year that passed, but Pearce dutifully pulled out the shiny blue present and placed it under his tree.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
“I told my family I’m never going to open that present,” Pearce recounted. Soon that would all change!
Change is Good
Naturally, Adrian Pearce had moved on over the years and had even married Janet, the love of his life. The two were deeply in love with each other. They had children and settled down, but Pearce kept up with his tradition. He put his wife and children's presents under the family tree, but he always put Allen's gift right beside them.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
Pearce was sure that he would keep up his Christmas ritual forever, but at some point his wife had had enough. Something had to give.
Letting Go
Janet let her husband keep up his tradition for several decades before she decided that something had to change. She was concerned and after 40 years, knew that her husband had been keeping the gift near and dear for too long. She thought it would be good for him to let go.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
Although Pearce agreed to stop putting it under the tree, he didn't throw it out. He kept it in a drawer and would take it out to look at it while putting up Christmas decorations. The question must be raised, why was this gift so important to him?
Taking to Social Media
The present was more than just a simple token from his high school sweetheart. For Pearce, it served as a reminder of his adolescence. A symbol of his youth and of the passage of time, and a reminder just how far he’d come through the years.
These reasons were clear to Pearce, but many of his friends and family thought this habit was worrisome.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
He decided to take to social media to explain himself once and for all to his family, friends, and acquaintances. What he didn’t realize was that his social media post was going to change his life forever.
The Wolf
When Pearce wrote up the Facebook post, he revealed more than his friends hoped for. He talked, not only about his tradition with Allen's gift, but also about the reason she broke up with him. “She left me for an older guy named Wolf who she called Wolfie,” he wrote.
His post went viral and was seen by hundreds of thousands of people who were all dying to find out what was under the shiny blue wrapping paper.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
Lots of people tried to find Allen, including Pearce himself. He decided to reconnect and found that it was easier said than done!
Catfish
It didn’t take long for Pearce's viral story to make national headlines. It seemed as though his story was shared in all the papers and reported on all across TV stations. Several women even claimed to be Vicki Allen from the story, but Pearce wasn’t so easy to convince.
He tested their identities by asking them questions that only the true Allen would be able to answer correctly, but none of these ladies were able to give the correct answers.
Image by Mabel Amber / Pixabay
And so, Pearce's search for Allen continued…
Close Call
Facebook users supported Pearce in his quest to reconnect with his high school sweetheart. But he would have to put in a lot of work by himself, turning to his old journals for further research.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
It turned out that while he was studying at Humber College in Toronto, he ran into Vicki Allen's sister, Stephanie, from whom he asked for Vicki's contact information, which he wrote about. Stephanie tried her best to help out and gave him a few phone numbers, but none of those numbers were useful for contacting Vicki all these years later.
Dead End
Pearce had written three different phone numbers in his journal in 1977. The first number was Allen's home number, but obviously that had changed after 40 years. She had worked at Sears during that time, and that was the second number he had. The last number was for her parents' house, but their number had changed as well.
Pearce checked the phone book, but was only able to find a 91 year old lady who shared Allen's name.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
Although Pearce had reached a dead end, he had only to turn around and take another path!
The Breakthrough
As Pearce's story continued circulating, one of his friends from high school realized that he was still in touch with Allen and sent her a link to the article.
Allen got in touch with Pearce shortly after and invited him and his wife to meet up at her house in British Columbia.
Image by @unopenedpresent / Facebook
Although Pearce was eager to go, Janet was concerned. She was happily married to Pearce with two children, but she was worried about how he would act once he finally got to be in the same room with his high school sweetheart after all of these years.
Unveiling the Mystery
The married couple, Janet and Adrian Pearce, journeyed from Toronto to British Columbia near the end of 2018.
Allen told them how shocked she was that Adrian had held on to her unopened gift for so much time. The three of them decided to put an end to the mystery of the present after talking about it.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
As the story went viral, the couple was able to use the gift opening to help others. They decided to televise it and used the funds that were made to benefit a Christmas charity organization.
Why'd She Do It?
Allen took the time, during the live broadcast, to tell everyone about her side of the story.
Even she didn’t remember what was under the wrapping paper, but she did remember when she bought it and why she decided to break off the relationship.
While she was shopping for Pearce's gift that he ended up keeping for so many years, she met another young man, named Wolf. Allen had had a crush on Wolfie for longer than she could remember. While they were talking, things turned romantic and it ended in a kiss.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
But Allen couldn’t handle cheating on Pearce.
A Different Perspective
Allen considered the kiss with Wolf and knew that the worst thing wasn’t that he kissed her, but that she returned the favor. She knew that the right thing to do was to break up with Pearce, after her terrible betrayal. Going on vacation with him would be too much.
Even though she felt awful about it when she was 15, four decades gave her a different perspective and it actually seemed a bit childish.
After Allen's story came the big reveal.
Image by @unopenedpresent / Facebook
The suspense in the room was palpable, and everyone wanted to know what the present was!
The Big Reveal
Pearce decided that he would give the honor of opening the present to Allen. She’d wrapped it all those years ago, but she wasn’t sure what it was either.
She immediately turned red as a beet when she unwrapped it, muttering that there was no way this was the gift she had given Pearce.
When she revealed the present to the cameras, there were gasps of surprise heard all around. The gift was a book called Love Is: New Ways to Spot That Certain Feeling.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
It was understandable that Vicki was flustered, but it wasn’t the only surprise that evening.
Personalized Message
Allen remarked that her Christmas present “just shows how ignorant a 15-year-old can be,” as Pearce flipped through the comic strips. She stated that it was true that she might have been “a bit careless of his feelings,” before she asked if she’d at least left a personalized note in one of the covers of the book. After a thorough search, they discovered that she had, in fact, left a note.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
This wasn’t the end of things, however.
Guessing Game
All those years led Pearce to believe the present would be a wallet, while Pearce thought it was an Archie comic from the 1970s.
No matter what, they had to admit that the gift was some kind of symbolic considering that it had remained unopened because of his broken heart.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
Allen should have known it would be a book, since she was an avid reader and loved to visit bookstores in her teens. After the big reveal, she shared how she had felt about Pearce and their relationship.
How She Saw It
Even though Pearce had believe Allen was destined to be the love of his life, Allen thought their high school relationship was not all that serious. In her eyes, their romance was an innocent relationship that would fizzle out eventually, not the lifelong commitment Pearce was experiencing.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
Pearce was married to the true love of his life, Janet, and didn’t hold a grudge. He was finally ready to let go of the past. With the present unwrapped at last and his friendship with Allen on the mend, Pearce still had plans for his gift.
Paying It Forward
Pearce decided that the right thing to do was to frame the book with the shiny blue wrapping paper alongside it, and hang it in his home as a reminder of how his life was. The buzz about the gift had died down, but Pearce and Allen's story was an inspiration to others.
They managed to raise money for the Christmas Bureau of Edmonton which provided the funds necessary for Christmas gifts for children in need.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
This wasn’t the only reason they had reconnected, however.
The Book
This wasn’t the end of Pearce and Allen's story.
Not only was Pearce strong against temptation, he is also a writer at heart. Meeting Allen on live TV allowed Pearce to promote his new book, The 47 Year Old Present. In it, Pearce shared his ideas about the present.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
Although the story ended in poetic fashion, with Janet, Allen and Pearce being all good friends, Pearce wasn’t ready to let go. After the live Christmas special took place, he now had to add something more to his book.
The Last Chapter
Pearce felt that the last chapter of the book had to be rewritten after the Christmas special aired. He had to add in the events leading up to the unwrapping of the book as well as those that came right after.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
This wasn’t the end of Pearce's creativity. As he's also a filmmaker, he knew he had to tell his story through film as well. Once he announced plans to film a documentary about the 47 year old gift, no one was surprised that the gift was still near and dear to his heart.
Filming
Pearce is hopeful that his film project will be full of guest interviews, as well as footage of himself, his wife, and Allen. His creativity knows no bounds.
Image by @the47yearoldpresent / Instagram
Although Pearce is eager to start filming his documentary, some of his family members are concerned about it. His son isn’t a fan of the idea and has gone on record saying that his father’s story is “stupid.” Meanwhile, Allen is also concerned about his motives for keeping the present all this time.
Happily Ever After
Pearce's story hasn’t just circulated around his native home of Canada. It also spread to the whole world, including the US and across the sea to the UK.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
A story that begins with puppy love heartache, it seem to end with a happily ever after. Pearce and Allen had both continued on with their lives, fallen in love with other people, and had their own children. Their breakup and the gift, however, remain distant memories. Still, they’ve inspired people worldwide with their story.
Being Thorough
When writing a book, it’s important to know all the details. Pearce tried to do all of his homework while writing his book. He wanted to be as thorough as he possibly could, so he did his best to get in touch with as many other people from high school. He also tried to contact family members and friends for additional details.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
Stephanie, Vicki’s sister, wasn’t the only friend he contacted. He also attempted to contact Wolfie, but hasn’t heard anything from him so far.
Singing the Same Tune
After Allen broke up with Pearce, he came home and listened to Johnny Winter’s song “Be Careful With a Fool.” It perfectly described his feelings after the breakup and he hasn’t forgotten those feelings in all the years since.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
Although he wanted to use the song’s lyrics in his books, there were some copyright issues preventing it. Pearce can listen to the song without bumming himself out these days, but it used to be one of the most difficult things for him to do when he was younger.
A Man of Many Talents
Pearce recently posted a new status on social media about his love of reading and writing. In 2018 alone, he said that he read at least 43 books, but that he found other sources of inspiration.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
He likes to take part in writing workshops and has a new novel coming out soon. In it he tells his adventures and experiences as a cameraman and filmmaker. It seems like Pearce is a real renaissance man!
A Happy Marriage
Even though Pearce kept Allen's Christmas gift for so long, 47 years to be exact, that doesn’t mean that Janet, his wife, is any less important. In fact, she’s one of the most important people in his life.
Image by @Adrian Mike Pearce / Facebook
Pearce shared a throwback photo of Janet and him in January of 2019. This photo was taken in 1972, just a few short months after he’d had his heart broken by Allen. Although he held on to her present, it’s likely that his heartache didn’t last as long as the wrapped gift.
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