Emma Weatherley is hoping to be reunited with a pair of cuckoo clocks that have been family heirlooms as long as she can remember.
Her grandmother, who lived in the Wellesley seniors’ home on Blanshard, had the clocks for years, and she and her brother knew from an early age that they were to be passed along to them when their grandmother died.
“They were her favourite things,” said Weatherley, who said her grandmother lived in Victoria for eight or nine years, and had a lot of family and friends on Vancouver Island.
But in all of the activity following her grandmother’s death last month, the clocks were inadvertently donated to the Salvation Army.
Weatherley, who grew up in Comox but now lives in Virginia, set to work calling Salvation Army locations around the capital region. She contacted nine Salvation Army sites, and determined the clocks likely ended up in Saanich.
“The Saanich Salvation Army received two clocks two weeks ago, but they sold,” she said.
The Salvation Army did all it could when it found out about the situation, Weatherley said.
“They were really helpful,” she said. “Everybody was asking all the workers and checking the shelves and the back.
“They even found a cuckoo clock, but it wasn’t the right one.”
The missing clocks are similar-looking, with both featuring pine cones and carvings of leaves, but one has a dark, mahogany tone and the other has a lighter stain.
Weatherley said she isn’t sure what the old clocks are worth — “It’s really the sentimental value” — and is willing to consider a reward for their return.
She hopes some publicity will lead to the clocks turning up.
“Crazier things have happened.”
Contact her at 540-352-2790 or [email protected].
