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12-year-old mystery solved

Memory card filled with wedding and family photos finally returned to owner

JEN TAPLIN jtaplin@herald.ca @chronicleherald

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia may be nearing one million people, but it's still a small, everybody-knows-everybody, place at heart. For proof, Lower Sackville couple Michelle and Damien Carew managed to solve a 12-year mystery in the space of a weekend.

On Dec. 24, 2009, Damien Carew noticed something left behind when he went to see his son who was living in an apartment building on Riverside Drive in Lower Sackville. It was a small memory card from a camera.

“We took it home and found some family photos and wedding photos and said ‘this is important to somebody,'” he said.

“Over the years we were trying to find out, tried to track down who owned it and just recently figured it out.”

For 12 years, the small piece of plastic found a home in an envelope left over from a Christmas card labelled with the date. They popped it on top of a kitchen cupboard, but after a small kitchen fire, it was relocated to their Christmas decorations box.

Michelle Carew said they would see it every year and try to find new ways to figure out who it belonged to.

“I did reach out to media and didn't get a reply, and I tried some other social media stuff like Kijiji, but I was reluctant to (post) people's faces … and then this weekend, I just said I'm going to put their faces out there,” she said.

A collage of some of photos were posted to the Facebook group Ask Nova Scotia and soon enough, Michelle received a tidal wave of comments.

“I had a feeling this was the year, but I didn't expect within minutes the post would just blow up and everybody seemed to know somebody in the picture. I think it was a brother-inlaw of the owner who I was private messaging back and forth.”

The people in the wedding photos were almost instantly recognized, leading Michelle to connect with a man who is the uncle of the bride.

The post went up on Saturday, and by Sunday the 12-year-old mystery was solved as the owner came by to pick up the card.

“He thanked me, but I think he was just as surprised as everybody else is that I held onto it for so long,” Michelle said.

“I think he's a pretty mellow guy,” she added. “He just mentioned that his daughter lived in the same apartment building when I told him where it was found. That was it — short and sweet.”

But, before he left, she just had to know: was the couple in the wedding photos still together? Yes, they were.

Damien said they could understand how much returning the card could mean, and the importance of family photos, especially if they might only exist on this one, tiny card.

“We just figured this is somebody's life's story and they'd like to get a piece of it back and we just lucked out this year I guess,” Damien said.

“And I thought I certainly wouldn't want them thrown away if they were mine … Maybe it will turn up some good memories for those people.”

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2021-12-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://saltwire.pressreader.com/article/281625308581595

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