The story of an 80-year-old woman and her favourite book. Beautiful.

Betty Fowkes’s father gave her a book when she was 11. It was a special book, written for grown-ups, and it sat very heavily in her little hands. She felt important the moment she opened it, and she felt important every time she brushed its cover.

Just inside the cover, on the front page of Magic Australia by Nuri Mass, Betty’s father wrote a tiny little note in his curly handwriting. It read: “To Betty, from Daddy. Christmas 1944.” Concise, but meaningful. 1944 was a big year: Betty’s dad had just returned home injured in war, and Betty was moments away from being a teenager.

She kept the book safe for four years in her Northcote family home. But somehow, when they moved house, it was lost. She thought she’d never see it again.

Fast-forward nearly 70 years.

Betty’s daughter, Liz Crooks, decided to try and track down a copy of the book her mama had loved so much as a kid. She wanted to get it for Mother’s Day, so she searched online for a copy, any copy. She tracked one down on the shelves of New York’s Austin Book Shop, in the rare book section. She paid $84 and had it shipped to Australia.

It arrived in April.

When Liz opened the book and flipped to the front page, she noticed a small inscription on the yellowed paper. “To Betty, from Daddy. Christmas 1944.”

Obviously, there were tears. Liz cried. Betty cried. After all those years, Betty’s original copy of the book she most treasured had returned to her. Who knows how many hands it had passed through or how it ended up in a New York book shop, but Magic Australia had ended up back with its rightful owner.