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 trade, discovered the $14.99 picket Nova Scotia lighthouse lamp at Worth Village.
She discovered it charming. When she turned it over to verify the worth she discovered an inscription that mentioned “constructed & painted by John and Sheila Jordan, Brighton N.S.” and a cellphone quantity within the 902 space code.
“I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, have a look at this,'” Ghersini mentioned.
Fascinated by the discover, she purchased it. She thought a co-worker from Nova Scotia would take pleasure in having one thing within the workplace to remind him of house.
After some analysis, she discovered 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)
Figuring out that East Coast household connections run deep, Ghersini posted pictures of the lamp on the “I really like Nova Scotia” Fb group. She went to mattress considering any individual may reply.
“Waking up the following morning, I feel at that time I used to be near 1,000 likes on the primary day,” she mentioned.
“After which it simply form of saved rising and rising and rising. The feedback which have been posted are simply so heartwarming.”
To this point, the publish has just below 7,000 likes, 274 feedback and over 500 shares.
The publish rapidly reached John and Sheila’s household in Nova Scotia.
“I took a second and I used to be like, ‘Does that say Uncle Johnny and Auntie Sheila?” mentioned Ocean O’Neill, their great-niece from Bridgetown, N.S., who noticed it first on her feed.
O’Neill mentioned the couple are remembered fondly by their household. She vividly remembers her visits to their house close to Digby.
She mentioned the couple crafted lighthouses, birdhouses and replicas of Maud Lewis’s house as a retirement interest.
“Uncle Johnny’s wooden store was behind the home and he was color blind and that is why she painted every part, ” O’Neill mentioned.
They’d give them to household and associates and promote them as souvenirs to passing vacationers. Each was signed and numbered, she mentioned.
The publish helped O’Neill uncover a cousin she by no means knew existed.
When Ghersini discovered that the couple who made the lighthouse had died she posted pictures on-line to see if any relations remembered them. (Julia Ghersini)
Amanda Farnsworth-Thibodeau, a great-niece from Marshalltown, N.S., mentioned John was her godfather. She says she nonetheless cherishes a birdhouse he made for her.
Farnsworth-Thibodeau likens the outpouring of reminiscences and household connections to an East Coast kitchen social gathering taking place on-line.
She believes one of many causes for the recognition of the publish is as a result of “individuals missed that connection of the easier issues in life, getting presents from individuals which are easy however actually imply huge issues.”
The little Nova Scotia lighthouse now sits in Ghersini’s B.C. workplace. She mentioned it is good to know that she’s brightened so many individuals’s day by posting about it on Fb.
“It is the very first thing I activate within the morning … and the very last thing I flip off at evening,” Ghersini mentioned.
Ghersini plans to go to Nova Scotia quickly and says she thinks she has to deliver the lighthouse “again to the place it got here from.”
