While the delivery of death notices evokes imagery of somber authority figures, Naches resident Ted Cowan unknowingly filled the role at age 11.

As a kid, Cowan, now 79, delivered notes to people who didn't yet have telephones, earning a dime from the telephone operator to jump on his bikes and hand-deliver news.

"She told me to deliver this one, and all she said was, 'This is going to be a very sad one,' " he said.

In September 2007, Cowan met one of the recipients of that note.

As a board member of the Naches Cemetery, he regularly checks the grounds "to see that everybody's still there," and noticed a woman and her niece eating lunch.

The woman was talking about her sister, who died in 1939 at 4 years old.

"She began telling the niece about her little sister who'd been quite ill in Children's Hospital in Seattle for several months or years, I'm not sure." Cowan says.

"One Sunday morning, a little boy on a bicycle rode up and gave (her) parents a note that said that their little daughter and her sister had died. And so I looked at them and I said, 'You're looking at that little boy.'"

"Now this is 68 years later. I don't know what the odds are on that meeting, but their mouths just fell open," he recalls.

-- Sara Gettys