Woman Thrifts Old Postcard for 34 Cents-Stumbles on an ‘Epic Love Story'

Poppy Newdick was rifling through a thrift store postcard box in York, England, when she paid 25 pence (34 cents) for a piece of someone else’s life. It was a handwritten note in blue ink, addressed to a man named Dianu in Romania, dated 1977, and signed by a British woman named Sheila. Her friend Ruby had spotted the letter first. Neither of them was prepared for where it would lead.

“We were captivated,” Newdick told Newsweek. “But more so of the mystery of how a postcard addressed to Romania in 1977 ended up in York?”

The answer, it would turn out, was the opening thread of one of the most quietly extraordinary love stories imaginable-a trans-European romance that crossed the Iron Curtain, outlasted communism, and ultimately produced a monument to grief and devotion in the foothills of the Romanian Carpathians.

Newdick and her friends bought the card on the spot, then found three more from Sheila to Dianu in the same pile. They took them to a nearby spot in the city and began to read.

“It was like uncovering a mystery and discovering an epic love story all at the same time,” she said.

In one card, Sheila had written: “Now I am on holiday, I have a lot of time to think and of course all my thoughts are to you.”

Finding the Couple

The group went into what Newdick lightheartedly called “detective mode.” They found a Romanian-language interview with Dianu and ran it through a translation tool. In it, he described being a hotel worker in Romania in the late 1970s when a group of English tourists arrived. He had helped Sheila when the hairdryer in her room broke and liked her immediately.

“It wasn’t a Romanian and an Englishwoman,” he told the interviewer. “It was just Dianu and Sheila.”

Then came the discovery of a photograph of the two of them, traveling together in the late 1970s.

“We literally had goosebumps,” Newdick said.

What the friends uncovered next filled in the arc of a remarkable life shared across borders. Sheila and Dianu married in 1985. He left then communist Romania in the 1980s and moved to Lancashire, England to join Sheila who became principal librarian coordinating 17 libraries across Manchester.

Together they founded the Văratic Spiritual Cultural Center in Romania’s monastic heartland. Sheila reportedly died in 2015. Dianu followed, and while the precise year remains uncertain, Newdick and her friends believe it may have been 2018 rather than some reports online which state 2021.

Newdick said the group had originally hoped to return the postcards to Dianu directly.

“We wanted to get the postcards back to him-why were they in this second-hand shop in England?-but then found his obituary and were saddened that he had passed away too,” she said.

She added that both Sheila and Dianu are believed to be laid to rest near the Văratic Cultural Center, close to the tomb of the lover of one of Romania’s most celebrated poets.

The depth of Dianu’s devotion became clear as more details emerged. At the cultural center built following Sheila’s death, he allegedly commissioned a bust of her and created a room dedicated to her books and poetry.

“It’s truly the most romantic legacy,” Newdick said. “Like a temple to their love.”

Newdick went back to the charity shop and combed through every postcard in the box. She now has 15 from Sheila to Dianu.

Newdick’s story has received an outpouring of responses, including offers from Romanian followers to drive her to the Văratec Monastery and help make contact with sources in the region.

She has emailed the cultural center and other contacts but has yet to hear back in her quest to get the postcards back home. Newsweek also reached out to Văratic Spiritual Cultural Center for more information via email.

“It felt a bit like the story had found us, rather than the other way around,” Newdick said. “My biggest goal right now is to try and get in touch with the cultural center so I can return the postcards to them or find out more about Sheila and Dianu.

“The way Dianu wrote or spoke about Sheila is magical-he was truly a poet. I’ve become completely invested in their story and their love.”

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This story was originally published May 30, 2026 at 6:30 AM.