Secret coded letter reunites man with long-lost love

Noepe, MASS. — Cynthia Riggs, 81, had sworn off marriage ever since she divorced her husband of 25 years. She held onto that solemn vow for over 35 years, until she received a secret coded letter from an old friend in the mail last year.

Just last week, she married Howard Attebery, 90, after six decades of being apart.

When Riggs, an author and owner of a bed and breakfast, found a letter in her mailbox, she knew immediately who it was from.

Over 63 years before, Riggs had worked at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego with Attebery. To stave off boredom, they created a secret code and would leave innocent notes to each other around the building.

Riggs quickly decoded the new note and it read: "I have never stopped loving you."

She wanted to write back Attebery, but there was a catch: the return address was also written in code.

"It wasn't easy because his return address was a latitude and longitude. He wanted it to be that if I really wanted to get in touch with him I would," she told Yahoo! Shine. "The only problem was, when he wrote the latitude and longitude he gave the wrong one."

Attebery said he accidentally wrote it down the opposite way.

"I misread it," he said.

But Riggs remembered that Attebery had been a dentist and contacted the California Dental Association. After a few dead ends, she finally found an address and sent a letter.

The two began a correspondence and quickly found they had a lot in common. They both had children die within the past five years, and those tragedies solidified their bond.

"That brought us together in a hurry," Riggs said.

Attebury continued to woo Riggs from a distance. Upon finding out she was an avid gardener, he came up with a creative idea: he sent her seeds of flowers and vegetables, with the letters of the name of each plant spelling out "H loves C." The plants are now blooming in her garden.

But marriage was not in any future plans for Riggs — she still did not make an effort to meet Attebury in person.

"I was never going to get married again," she said.

But fate, and a bit of luck, brought them together a short while later. After a year of writing letters, Riggs flew to California to visit her daughter. When she arrived, Attebery had a train ticket waiting for her to come and visit him. With her daughter's encouragement, she decided to take him up on his offer with no expectations.

"The last time he saw me I was 18," she said. "And I'm 81."

Attebery greeted her with a rose and took her back to his home, where he says they sat on the swing in his garden.

"I held her hand, and within the hour I'd proposed to her," Attebery said. "I knew, and she knew."

Riggs said she felt the same way. "He's a romantic character, and he certainly knew how to win me over," she said.

Attebery had also held onto their secret coded notes from their time spent in San Diego. He would look at them from time to time, but never contacted her. His first marriage ended in divorce, and his second wife had passed away in 1989. After seeing the notes again, he decided it was time to try and find Riggs.

"It seemed to me the time was right to send it," he said. "I really loved that woman from day one, but she had no idea."

Riggs and Attebery married in a church in Martha's Vineyard last week in front of 150 guests and plan to reside there, where Riggs runs her bed and breakfast.

"There's that word 'grand' that you don't hear so much anymore," Attebery said. "Well, this is grand for me."

And Riggs said she's glad she gave marriage another chance and truly appreciates their love story.

"We both know what's important now. We have a limited amount of time, and we're not going to waste it," Riggs said. "It's wonderful."

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