“It made my day. I was just bubbling!” says Marian Braybrook, doing her usual receptionist job Monday morning, May 29, in the Virden Empire-Advance newspaper office. She had just opened an email from a man from Ontario who had spared no effort to find a Braybrook in Virden. He was hoping to eventually know if Joyce Braybrook, owner of a lost-and-found purse was OK.
Marian was both flabbergasted and elated by that email message. Here’s the email she read, from Richard Irvine: You don’t know me but do you know a Joyce Braybrook born Jan,12...?Why I ask, as I live in Niagara Falls Ontario, I fish a lot in a creek that runs under the QEW Hwy from Niagara Falls to Fort Erie. Today I snagged my line and pulled in a purse with a few rocks in it and also a flip phone and a Manitoba Drivers License for Joyce Braybrook. Just curious to know, as I Googled her name and came up with your name. Just want to make sure she is fine, if you know her. He added,Weird things happen.
Through the course of several more emails Marian Braybrook found out more details. Irvine describes a cast that starts out like many a fishing experience: I snagged [something] with a spinning lure but notice what I snagged was moveable, actually thought it was a branch. Finding a purse weighed down with stones was chilling.
The email continued: I usually fish with my daughter, this time, was alone and I felt eerie. Why? Because it's a remote area and since [someone] took time to put rocks in it to sink it made me more suspicious.
Where is the owner of the purse, he wondered, thinking there was no way someone from Manitoba would be around the area for any reason. He said it wasn’t a place that a tourist would go.
The email continues: And why sink it in water? They could have just tossed along side of the highway, but no, took time to sink it.
Marian Braybrook told Irvine that Joyce was her mother-in-law, and that she was, indeed, well. Thanking him she said, “I will certainly tell her about your adventure; and for seeing if all is well, thank you so much for looking for us.”
Joyce Braybrook had been on a holiday at Niagara-on-the-Lake, visiting her daughters. They took a day-trip to historic Fort George. To tour the fort, the family parked in the lot and the women locked their purses in the trunk of their hatchback.
Braybrook explained the events of nine years ago. “These two guys came up to my son-in-law and asked, ‘Have you got your pass to park the car yet?’”
Braybrook’s son-in-law said, “No, I was just going to go and get it.” So, the men gave him their pass which had an hour-and-a-half time on it.
Did the pair watch the Braybrook women put their purses in the trunk? Were they in any way involved in the crime that ensued? She doesn’t know, “There was bus loads of people there.”
Braybrook and family headed into the historic fort, a tour Braybrook’s granddaughter was keen to take, as she was very interested in the history of the region.
When the family returned to the car later that afternoon, the side window was smashed and the purses stolen.
They searched the area and reported the theft to police. Son-in-law, Dale phoned Joyce Braybrook’s cell phone repeatedly for several days, hoping someone would hear it and answer. But, no.
For the Virden traveller, it was tough without her purse.
“All I had was about $16. I had nothing! My plane ticket, I did leave at the house; but I didn’t have a scrap of ID. I couldn’t even get back on the plane to come home.”
Her flight was through West Jet. At their advice, she made a phone call to Andrew Agencies. They faxed a copy of Braybrook’s license, to use as identification to get on the plane to return to Manitoba.
She had to cancel her credit cards and get another copy of her medical card.
Needless to say, even years after the fact, Braybrook was excited at the news of the find. She laughs, “You always wonder – ‘where did they throw it?’ After all this time, I never thought that it would be found. It was black, a little square purse with just a handle.”
On her way to the newspaper office to see Irvine’s emails and the photos of her lost belongings, she was mulling over the news.
“At first, I just could hardly believe it. It’s exciting,” she said describing how she even missed a street turn to a previous appointment, so intent was she to get to the newspaper office.
Fisherman Irvine was relieved to hear the purse’s owner was alive and well at Virden. But now, he also knows the details from Braybrook’s side of the story, he realizes there was another purse, that of Braybrook’s daughter Barb. There may be another purse at the bottom of his favourite fishing hole.
There was also more to the fisherman’s story, as Marian explained to Joyce.
“The reason why he was really quite concerned if you are OK, because he said, 25 years ago when he was fishing, he got snagged on something, and it was a headless body. So that’s why, when he found this stuff, he was concerned about the person.”
Sure enough, in the email, Irvine explained, “Well, fishing is interesting sometimes...some 25 years ago while fishing in Niagara River, [I] pulled out a male headless body...been in the water about six months.”
Greatly relieved for now, the accidental sleuth is sending the driver’s license to Braybrook, and now, he’s on the watch for one more purse in the creek.
Incidentals
The Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) is a highway in Ontario from Peace Bridge in Fort Erie.
Fort George saw action during the Battle of Queenston Heights,was destroyed and captured by the Americans during the Battle of Fort George, and was reclaimed by the British seven months later. This fortification served as the headquarters for the Centre Division of the British Army during the War of 1812, and played a pivotal role in the defence of Upper Canada.
