Kori Neff-Bauman is hoping to find some Christmas cheer.
The Port Coquitlam woman was looking forward to celebrating the season with her 19 year-old son Zachary, for the first time in three years. Two years ago the holidays were darkened by the death of her father, Robert, and last year — just four days before Christmas — her mother, Sandra, passed away.
Neff-Bauman and her son put up their tree and plugged in its warm glowing lights. But when she went to hang her wreath on their front door, she made a terrible discovery.
The wreath, which was made by Neff-Bauman’s mom and gifted to her several years ago, was gone. In the chaos of packing away the final contents of her parents’ Port Coquitlam home and making space for some of them in her own, she’d delivered several bags of items to the Eagle Ridge Hospital Auxiliary thrift store on Shaughnessy Street. The large green artificial wreath adorned with pinecones, little green presents and a big green bow, was in one of them.
Neff-Bauman said when she realized on Monday what had happened, she was devastated.
“I cried for two days,” she said.
Crafting was her mom’s passion, Neff-Bauman explained. She’d made wreaths for all four of her daughters, and every year she delivered a handmade centrepiece.
“She’d always check we had our wreaths on our doors,” she said.
Neff-Bauman emailed the thrift shop right away, then spoke to someone there the next day. But in the time since she had delivered the used goods on Dec. 2 to her heartbreaking realization on Monday, it had been sold.
Neff-Bauman said she hopes whoever bought it will be willing to sell it back to her.
“It would mean the world,” she said. “To them it’s a pretty decoration, but to me it’s another piece of my mom.”
• If you can reunite Neff-Bauman with her wreath, please contact the Eagle Ridge Hospital Auxiliary thrift shop at 604-469-3338 or [email protected]
