Woman spreads kindness with 925 handwritten love letters hidden throughout city
An example of one of the letters Katrina Lord has written.
By James Groh
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MILWAUKEE (WTMJ) — A Milwaukee woman has written more than 900 inspirational notes and hidden them throughout the city for strangers to find.
Katrina Lord has penned 925 handwritten notes as part of her project called Milwaukee Love Letter, which she started in 2016.
“When I’m caught between rock and a hard place, let me be water, let me be water, let me be water,” reads one of her notes. It’s a quote from John Roedel.
Each letter contains an inspirational, positive, or comforting quote on the front. On the back, Lord writes her own personal message.
“Hello stranger. May you find ease and flow through the hard times like water,” she wrote.
Lord places these notes around Milwaukee for anyone to discover – in cafes, little free libraries, and other public spaces.
She says the responses from people who find her notes have been meaningful.
“Really special, like it’s a reminder that this does have impact because most times people say they’ve had a bad day and then they found the letter and it just changed their day around,” Lord said.
She posts photos of her notes to her Instagram, MKELoveLetter.
For Lord, it’s a simple way to spread positivity throughout her community.
“I think it kind of goes back to that you never know how you’re affecting someone’s day,” Lord said.
The project has inspired others to create their own notes. I even wrote one with a quote from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Two Towers”: “But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass.”
Anyone can participate in this kind of kindness project with just a piece of paper and a pen.
Lord isn’t the first person to start such an initiative, but her project has inspired others beyond Milwaukee.
“So I’ve heard from a few people that found it, like on Instagram, and they started to do it in their cities, which is really cool to see it kind of spread in that way,” Lord said.
Lord has no plans to stop her project anytime soon.
“There’s a never-ending abundance of fun quotes out there, so yeah, I plan to keep on doing this,” Lord said.
This story was reported by James Groh and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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