Apeculiar letter was recently sent to the Stand Like Stone Foundation from the mysterious ‘Voz Londy’.
Stand Like Stone chief executive Roger Babolka said this was the second letter the foundation had received from Voz Londy and staff were pleased to receive the amusing letter.
“What stood out was the envelope they were in was very colourful, someone has gone to a lot of work to make it very colourful in terms of the colours and little drawings and that sort of thing on it,” he said.
The six-page letter, written on Bubble-O-Bill printed paper, was delivered in a large, decorated envelope with a Mount Gambier tea towel and Bubble-O-Bill bookmarks also inside and both letters included donations.
“Interestingly enough, the money they sent through was a combination of Australian current currency, some old Australian notes like the $1 or $2 notes and the second letter had some foreign currency in it as well,” Mr Babolka said.
The letter incorporated the Adam Lindsay Gordon poem which is part of the Stand Like Stone ethos, ‘life is mostly froth and bubble, two things stand like stone. Kindness in another’s trouble, courage in your own’.
“The person has done some research into the foundation in terms of what we do, which is fantastic,” Mr Babolka said.
“The letters are a little bit random and talk about all sorts of different things, one of them talks about bubbles and things like that, the person is a bubble repairer and is part of the association of bubble repairers.
“It drifts between something nice and pleasant to something that is a little bit out there, and a bit strange and quirky.”
The creative letters have been circulating for at least two years, with Limestone Coast Dental another local recipient last year, and Voz has written to places all around Australia and overseas, with a letter even sent all the way to Iceland.
Most letters are signed off with ‘Voz Londy, Whirlpool Hideout, Penola’, and the ongoing mystery has left many people wondering who the writer is.
“Everybody that we have spoken to, and we have had some people do a little bit of hunting around, no one knows this person and the name is not anything that anyone knows in that area,” Mr Babolka said.
“We look forward to the letters, it gives the staff a bit of a smile and just adds to the mystery and the staff have been doing a little bit of research but have not been able to come up with anything concrete.
“It is just fantastic, we love it, and we hope he or she, whoever they are, keep doing it because they are bringing smiles to various people around the world.”
Although there is no solid evidence as to who Voz Londy is, Stand Like Stone staff have made their own speculations from observing the letters.
“It is all hand-written, and it is beautiful writing, it leads me to believe that it might be an older person, because it is not the sort of writing the current generation would be using, because it is just very, very 60s style, very neat writing,” Mr Babolka said.
“We have made an assumption for some reason that it is a female, and it is a mature-aged individual who just likes making people smile, because when these letters come through you do have a bit of a smile and a bit of a chuckle because that is what it is all about.
“It is very artistic in terms of the letters and the way it is written and the way it is very bright and quite surreal.
“So, it is someone who has got a bit of an artistic flair or maybe a writer because the letters, although they are a bit out there, they are well-written, the grammar is almost perfect as far as I could tell.
“We might be completely wrong about who the person might be, it might be a 16-year-old boy living in Mount Gambier who wanted to get this stuff out and about and have a bit of fun, but we are not fussed who it is or where they are from, I think it is just fantastic.”
