A lost application from a 70-year-old UK applicant, Tizi Hodson, who had thrown an application nearly five decades ago as a motorbike stunt rider, never got any reply; today, 48 years later, that application has resurfaced. Written in January 1976, the letter was found behind a drawer in a post office and returned to Hodson at last.
In scrawled handwriting on the letter it read, “Late delivery by Staines Post Office. Found behind a draw . Only about 50 years late.”
Speaking to the BBC, Hodson said she was still coming to terms with the revelation. “I always wondered why I never heard back about the job. Now I know why,” she said.
While it remains a mystery how the letter actually found its way back to her after all those years, considering that she has moved over 50 homes and even lived in other countries, Hodson could only say: “How they found me when I’ve moved house 50-odd times, and even moved countries four or five times, is a mystery”.
This letter was precious to Hodson as she remembered writing it from her flat in London, full of great anticipation which never materialized. She wished to be a motorbike stunt rider, riding a motorcycle to execute dangerous tricks.
Though she applied late, such a life did not stop her from living the most adventurous life. She then went on and took a “daredevil” lifestyle when she became employed as a job that would take her traveling around the globe. Then, to Africa, she became a horse whisperer, a snake wrangler, and even an aerobatic pilot and flight instructor.
Recalling the moment she penned the letter at the onset of her career, Hodson testified that she deliberately hid her gender from possible employers in hopes to get an interview to become the stunt rider. “I was going at a hundred miles an hour to prove I didn’t care, even if I would break every bone in my body,” she recalled.
She wasn’t going back over that momentous journey for her. “If I could speak to my younger self, I would say go and do all that I have done. I’ve had such a wonderful time in life, even if I have broken a few bones.”