| The intriguing items were found at Asda’s Milton of Craigie store at the end of last year, and were about to go in the bin before a quick-witted customer service assistant intervened.
Donnamarie Buchan (23) explained, “We clear out the lost and found items about every three months and discard anything unclaimed that is not valuable. But I didn’t want to just throw away these items because I think they might be important to someone and am keen for them to be reunited with their owner.”
The cherished newspaper cutting, from the Evening Telegraph in 1975, with the photograph wrapped inside was found on the evening of December 14.
Within the front-page newspaper cutting there is the beginning of an article about Operation Stork, describing the flitting of the maternity and special baby care units from DRI to Ninewells Hospital in the 70s.
Alongside the article, there is a picture depicting the nursing staff seated on a bus holding the babies that are being transported to the new unit.
Although the article must have been lovingly carried for over 30 years, it has slight tears in the top side and left side.
The black and white thumb sized photograph inside of the small boy, who looks about four years old, pictures him wearing a duffle coat and bonnet standing in a graveyard. Also found around the same period was an eerie book entitled The Ghosts of My Friends.
The red-coloured book lists the names of people who the owner knew and had died, with the first entry dating back over one hundred years.
Mary M. Davidson, who died on the first day of 1908, is the first entry in the book and the last entry made is for Doreen Bruce who appears to have died on November 21, 1952.
At the beginning of the book there are instructions on how the owner creates ghosts of their friends.
It explains that each page is folded and the name of the deceased is written along the fold.
When the page is then doubled over it constructs an uncanny shape around the name and this is supposed to be the shadowy ghostly form of the deceased.
Many of the names listed in the book have the surname Davidson, including Patrick, Duncan and Ethel.
The other surnames that commonly appear are Gall and Bruce.
“The items might not seem valuable to us, but they obviously mean a lot to the person who has kept them so tenderly all these years,” said Donnamarie.
If anyone can help to return the book, newspaper article and photograph to their owners, they can go to the customer services desk at Asda Milton or call the store on 503703 before asking for extension 293. |
