A house renovation in Dartmouth has led to a reunion 51 years in the making.
Carpenter Matty Goldsmith found a wallet under old floors while renovating a house on Victoria Road for his company. Inside were identification documents, including a driver’s licence and student ID, along with a 1975 theatre ticket for Hamlet and a dollar bill.
Goldsmith and his colleagues were surprised everything was fully intact. They guessed the owner was a high school student who used to work there as a construction labourer.
“I decided like, why not try our luck with the internet and see if we can track this person down,” he said.
His social media post quickly drew responses from the community, including from owner Richard Gilroy’s wife. Three days later, they met up and returned the wallet to Gilroy.
“I was very surprised to say the least,” 68-year-old Gilroy told CBC News on Wednesday. “I’m very pleased to get it all back.”
Gilroy said he remembers when and where he lost the wallet, but not everything that was inside.
“It’s very interesting that my original handwritten birth certificate was in my wallet, and I have no idea why my parents would have even given it to me,” Gilroy said.
He said he had no recollection of seeing Hamlet, but called the $1.50 ticket price “amazing.”
Gilroy said he is thankful for Goldsmith and plans to frame everything in the wallet and put it on display.
Goldsmith said his work often brings him “little treasures and time capsules.” He said he once found letters written in Chinese at a Vancouver renovation site, along with a bottle of cobra whisky, but this was the first time he had found someone’s ID.
“It’s always neat to think about like who left this here or what their life was like,” he said.
Goldsmith said it was pleasant to meet Gilroy and his wife, and that Gilroy was excited to “have that little piece of his past back in his hands.”
“He was able to have a bit of this luck and get this time capsule,” Goldsmith said. “It was such a nice trip down memory lane for him.”
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