Little lighthouse found in B.C. thrift store illuminates N.S. family connections

Vernon Ramesar · CBC News

· Posted: May 24, 2025 2:52 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

The hunt for an bureau lamp astatine a thrift store successful Maple Ridge, B.C., has resulted in an outpouring of involvement online and shed airy connected household ties thousands of kilometres away.

Julia Ghersini, who works successful the movie industry, recovered the $14.99 woody Nova Scotia lighthouse lamp astatine Value Village.

She recovered it charming. When she turned it implicit to cheque the terms she recovered an inscription that said "built & painted by John and Sheila Jordan, Brighton N.S." and a telephone fig successful the 902 country code.

"I thought, 'Oh my goodness, look astatine this,'" Ghersini said.

Fascinated by the find, she bought it. She thought a co-worker from Nova Scotia would bask having thing successful the bureau to punctual him of home.

After immoderate research, she learned John and Sheila Jordan had died. Sheila died successful 2015 and John 8 years later.

Knowing that East Coast household connections tally deep, Ghersini posted photos of the lamp connected the "I emotion Nova Scotia" Facebook group. She went to furniture reasoning idiosyncratic mightiness respond.

"Waking up the adjacent morning, I deliberation astatine that constituent I was adjacent to 1,000 likes connected the archetypal day," she said.

"And past it conscionable benignant of kept increasing and increasing and growing. The comments that person been posted are conscionable truthful heartwarming."

To date, the station has conscionable nether 7,000 likes, 274 comments and implicit 500 shares.

The station rapidly reached John and Sheila's household successful Nova Scotia.

"I took a 2nd and I was like, 'Does that accidental Uncle Johnny and Auntie Sheila?" said Ocean O'Neill, their great-niece from Bridgetown, N.S., who saw it archetypal connected her feed.

O'Neill said the mates are remembered fondly by their family. She vividly remembers her visits to their location adjacent Digby. 

She said the mates crafted lighthouses, birdhouses and replicas of Maud Lewis's location arsenic a status hobby.

"Uncle Johnny's wood store was down the location and helium was colour unsighted and that's wherefore she painted everything, " O'Neill said.

They would springiness them to household and friends and merchantability them arsenic souvenirs to passing tourists. Each 1 was signed and numbered, she said.

The station helped O'Neill observe a cousin she ne'er knew existed.

Amanda Farnsworth-Thibodeau, a great-niece from Marshalltown, N.S., said John was her godfather. She says she inactive cherishes a birdhouse helium made for her.

Farnsworth-Thibodeau likens the outpouring of memories and household connections to an East Coast room enactment happening online. 

She believes 1 of the reasons for the popularity of the station is due to the fact that "people missed that transportation of the simpler things successful life, getting gifts from radical that are elemental but truly mean large things."

The small Nova Scotia lighthouse present sits successful Ghersini's B.C. office. She said it's bully to cognize that she's brightened truthful galore people's time by posting astir it connected Facebook.

"It's the archetypal happening I turn connected successful the greeting ... and the past happening I turn disconnected astatine night," Ghersini said.

Ghersini plans to sojourn Nova Scotia soon and says she thinks she has to bring the lighthouse "back to wherever it came from."