The seek for an workplace lamp at a thrift retailer in Maple Ridge, B.C., has resulted in an outpouring of curiosity on-line and make clear household ties 1000’s of kilometres away.
Julia Ghersini, who works within the movie business, discovered the $14.99 picket Nova Scotia lighthouse lamp at Worth Village.
She discovered it charming. When she turned it over to verify the value she discovered an inscription that stated “built & painted by John and Sheila Jordan, Brighton N.S.” and a cellphone quantity within the 902 space code.
“I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, look at this,’” Ghersini stated.
Fascinated by the discover, she purchased it. She thought a co-worker from Nova Scotia would get pleasure from having one thing within the workplace to remind him of residence.
After some analysis, she realized John and Sheila Jordan had died. Sheila died in 2015 and John eight years later.
Ghersini posted a photograph of the inscription on the bottom of the lighthouse to Fb. (Julia Ghersini)
Realizing that East Coast household connections run deep, Ghersini posted photographs of the lamp on the “I love Nova Scotia” Fb group. She went to mattress considering any person would possibly reply.
“Waking up the next morning, I think at that point I was close to 1,000 likes on the first day,” she stated.
“And then it just kind of kept growing and growing and growing. The comments that have been posted are just so heartwarming.”
Thus far, the submit has just below 7,000 likes, 274 feedback and over 500 shares.
The submit rapidly reached John and Sheila’s household in Nova Scotia.
“I took a second and I was like, ‘Does that say Uncle Johnny and Auntie Sheila?” stated Ocean O’Neill, their great-niece from Bridgetown, N.S., who noticed it first on her feed.
O’Neill stated the couple are remembered fondly by their household. She vividly remembers her visits to their residence close to Digby.
She stated the couple crafted lighthouses, birdhouses and replicas of Maud Lewis’s residence as a retirement passion.
“Uncle Johnny’s wood shop was behind the house and he was colour blind and that’s why she painted everything, ” O’Neill stated.
They’d give them to household and mates and promote them as souvenirs to passing vacationers. Every one was signed and numbered, she stated.
The submit helped O’Neill uncover a cousin she by no means knew existed.
When Ghersini realized that the couple who made the lighthouse had died she posted photographs on-line to see if any members of the family remembered them. (Julia Ghersini)
Amanda Farnsworth-Thibodeau, a great-niece from Marshalltown, N.S., stated John was her godfather. She says she nonetheless cherishes a birdhouse he made for her.
Farnsworth-Thibodeau likens the outpouring of recollections and household connections to an East Coast kitchen occasion occurring on-line.
She believes one of many causes for the recognition of the submit is as a result of “people missed that connection of the simpler things in life, getting gifts from people that are simple but really mean big things.”
The little Nova Scotia lighthouse now sits in Ghersini’s B.C. workplace. She stated it’s good to know that she’s brightened so many individuals’s day by posting about it on Fb.
“It’s the first thing I turn on in the morning … and the last thing I turn off at night,” Ghersini stated.
Ghersini plans to go to Nova Scotia quickly and says she thinks she has to deliver the lighthouse “back to where it came from.”
