Balloons Filled With Mysterious Notes Land In Long Valley

Ollie barks at everything.

But there was something in his voice that sounded different Thursday morning.

Lisa Rose headed to the living room of her Long Valley home wondering why her dog was staring out the window, overlooking the front yard, with a relentless bark.

In the distance, sitting on the fence that separates the roadway from her property, was a bundle of more than two dozen red and white balloons tied together.

Rose took a walk down the long driveway to retrieve the helium-filled bubbles and dispose of them properly.

“I just figured it was a bundle of balloons from a neighbor’s home that floated away after a party or something,” Rose said Friday. “So I began popping them on my way back to the house.”

While she was walking and popping, Rose looked back and noticed something on the ground. Each balloon had inside it a note addressed to a man named John, who, according to the hand-written letters, had recently passed away.

“Happy trails to you! Until we meet again!” read one of the notes.

“I will miss all the chats and stories. Please say hello to my dad when you see him on the other side,” said another.

There was a total of 31 balloons, all individually filled with notes proclaiming love and memories for John along with well wishes in the afterlife.

“Hope you’re having fun!” exclaimed one note.

“Keep your stick on the ice John - safe journey,” another note read.

But who’s John, and where did the balloons come from?

“The balloons are red and white, some of the notes are written in French, and there are a few mentions of Montreal and (NHL team) the Canadiens,” Rose said, after she and her family discussed the clues at length. “I don’t know… maybe it came from Canada?”

The bundle was tied well with heavy twine and the balloons had shrunk to the size of softballs once Rose retrieved them. None of the notes give any specific clues, however, of where the balloons launched.

“I think it would be great to know where it came from,” Rose said. “For all we know, they came from (neighboring town) Hackettstown. Or maybe from across the country.”

Rose’s home is atop Schooley’s Mountain, which has an impressive elevation of 1,017 feet. Montreal, Canada, is located almost directly north of Long Valley, New Jersey, but is a distant 388 miles away.

Whomever “John” may be, he is gone, but certainly not forgotten, no matter where he is now.

Pictured: Still inflated balloons and the letters contained inside. Photos Courtesy Lisa Rose.