A photo card full of decade-old memories is working its way to the photographer in Norway after being found in Victoria nearly 10 years ago.
If it wasn’t for friends reading their local community news, Langford resident Bev Gulbrandsen may never have seen the story. She was off travelling when friends sent her a link to a story from the Victoria News.
“We were in Norway when the article was published and I had two different friends email me and say, ‘This looks like your husband in one of the pictures',” she said. “I thought, ‘No, this is a scam’.”
But when she hit the link, there was her husband Jan Egil, albeit a decade younger, smiling and smelling flowers. The next image showed her friend Wenche.
Ironically, Egil and Gulbrandsen were on their way to Norway to visit with friends Wenche and Wiggo. When the Greater Victoria couple shared the story, their Norwegian friends were surprised and thrilled. Wiggo immediately remembered losing a card while visiting Victoria in 2017, a card that included images from an earlier trip the four took on a cruise out of China.
The card was found at Fisherman’s Wharf in 2017 and turned in to the newspaper this spring.
It’s still a shock to her that someone saw the tiny card, picked it up, and then after all those years still sought to reunite it with the photographer.
“It’s been so long, I can’t believe somebody would turn it in,” Gulbrandsen said. “Some people would just be embarrassed holding on to something so long. Kudos to them for turning it in.”
Wenche is a lover of photography, steadily working to improve her skills and currently most interested in playing with light, natural and manufactured, Gulbrandsen said, speaking for her friend.
She plans to expedite the tiny card back to Norway.
The timing may also be fortuitous. Her friend is doing well but has been through a journey of cancer and could use the pick-me-up provided by a Good Samaritan story. Gulbrandsen is happy it’s a story with a positive, potentially inspiring ending.
“I thought it was kind of special for (Wenche). Somebody really cares and has returned this,” she said. “A story like this could inspire someone to just get out and enjoy, take photos and make a summer of memories.”
