Freezer of deceased Virginia lady contained biscuit from 1940, household discovers

A family in Virginia was left amused — and a little bit confused — when they found an 84-year-old biscuit in the freezer of a recently deceased relative. 

“Granny passed last month, September 2,” Andy Wiseman of Staunton, Virginia, told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview. (See the video at the top of this article.) 

His grandmother was 90. 

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Wiseman received a text from his mother, who was in the process of cleaning out his grandmother’s home. She said she’d found something interesting: a frozen biscuit dating back to 1940.

“She actually found it with a bunch of other stuff in the freezer,” he said. “It’s quite perplexing.” 

The biscuit shown above was found while a family was cleaning out the freezer of their deceased relative.  (Linda Wiseman)

Wiseman took to Reddit and posted a picture of the discovery on the “Mildly Interesting” page — where it received a lot of attention and comments. 

But questions remained as to who made the biscuit – and why it was kept for nearly a century.  

There was, however, a clue. 

Sealed in a bag with the rock-hard biscuit was a note reading, “Biscuit made by Mrs. Dara L Chambers in August 1940 at the Blankenship home.”

“I guess my grandmother just couldn’t throw it away.”

While the note was meant to inform the reader about the biscuit’s origins, all it did for Wiseman was spark additional questions. He did not know the names “Chambers” and “Blankenship.”

“We talked to my grandmother’s sister, Sally, and she gave us some information about those names, because they’re not family names we were familiar with,” he told Fox News Digital.

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“It turned out to be my grandmother’s brother, Harold,” Wiseman said. “It was his first wife’s family’s biscuits.” 

His grandmother’s sister, Wiseman said, found a newspaper clipping announcing Chambers’ death in 1940, the same year the biscuit was made.

The note states: “Biscuit made by Mrs Dana L Chambers in August 1940 at the Blankenship home.” Those names did not immediately ring a bell, Andy Wiseman told Fox News Digital.  (Linda Wiseman)

“We believe it’s very likely, maybe, from her last batch,” he said. Wiseman and his mother believe that the biscuit is “probably an old soda biscuit,” but he is unsure of the exact recipe that was used. 

“I’ve been learning more about biscuit history,” he joked. “I never knew this much about it.” 

Wiseman still does not know why his grandmother kept the biscuit for as long as she did or when she even acquired the item. 

“She wasn’t one to save,” he said. “She had downsized, and we really don’t know” why she kept it, he added.

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Wiseman believes his Uncle Harold had held onto the biscuit for the majority of its lifespan. After Harold’s death, Wiseman’s grandmother likely picked it up and stuck it in her freezer — where it stayed until its discovery at the end of September. 

“I guess my grandmother just couldn’t throw it away,” he said. It is also unlikely the biscuit was stashed and forgotten about, he said, as it was found “right in the door” of the freezer.

The biscuit was found “right in the door” of his grandmother’s freezer, Wiseman (shown here) told Fox News Digital. (Linda Wiseman; Fox News Digital)

“It’s just a strange biscuit with no context around it,” Wiseman said. He added that it is “petrified and rock hard” and “smells like freezer.” 

Wiseman and his mother do not have definite plans for what they plan on doing with the 84-year-old biscuit.

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The “immediate plan is to leave it in (his mother’s) freezer,” he said. “And then my brothers and I can find it.” 

The discovery of the biscuit, however, had an unexpected silver lining for Wiseman and his family: It’s kept his grandmother’s memory alive as they deal with their grief, he said.

“It’s been a lot of fun to talk about my grandmother. We all really loved her, and we miss her a lot.”

“It’s been kind of cathartic, I guess, or healing,” he said. 

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“It’s been a lot of fun to talk about the family history. It’s been a lot of fun to talk about my grandmother. We all really loved her and we miss her a lot.” 

Wiseman’s grandmother, he said, would take the entire family out for pizza each month for a big family dinner.

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Oct. 7, he said, “was the second one she’d missed. And she was very generous, and we all loved her and miss her. And it’s been a lot of fun talking about this.”