As a journalist who thrifts, I needed to find out more about my new-to-me hunting jacket

I love second-hand shopping. It's sustainable, it's fun and affordable, and best of all it's a satisfying response to fast fashion. It all keeps me coming back. Needless to say, I go a lot.

The other day, I found this amazing oversized, red, plaid hunting jacket. I don't remember exactly what I paid, but I'm pretty sure it was around 10 bucks. The label said it was made in Belleville, Ont., by a company called Deas Brothers. The best part though was when my husband, who wasted no time trying the jacket on for himself, flipped over the label and found this:

We found that address in Sault Ste. Marie, and with some quick Googling, confirmed Amanda had died in 2008 at the age of 87. Amanda's obituary revealed her daughter, Gloria Hayes, 78, now lives in London, Ont., where I live. When I finally tracked her down, Hayes told me she finally decided to part with her mother's red hunting jacket and had recently dropped it off at a local consignment store.

"You can see from the jacket, she really took good care of her clothes," said Hayes during a recent telephone call. But she admitted she could count on one hand the number of times she wore it.

Her mother, who she describes as feisty and exuberant, often wore that jacket on hunting trips with her father.

Listen to Rebecca's conversation with Gloria:

"My dad would hunt partridge, and she loved to go. They'd pack a lunch and away they'd go to St. Joe's island, not far away," Hayes recalled.

The couple would drive down rural roads while her mom watched out the window. 

"Mom was the one who had good eyes to notice what was moving in the forest, and then dad would stop the car and out he'd get and do a little inspection and find the birds and they'd bring them home and grandma would cook them," laughed Hayes.

"I don't know how often she ever got out of the car when the hunting was going on. I don't think she did."

Lost father as a young girl

Amanda Pennell's father died when she was just eight years old. To make ends meet, her mom (Hayes's grandmother) ran a boarding house in Sault Ste. Marie. That's where Amanda met her future husband, Warden. He had been boarding there. The couple married in 1942, had their only child, Hayes, a year later, and Warden was off to war in 1944. 

"When dad was gone, it was tough in a little apartment, no washer and dryer," Hayes recalled. "She said she'd put me on a toboggan with the dirty clothes and take it to grandmas and do the wash and then bring it home. She said, stretch it out on the radiators to dry."

Gloria donated most of her mother's things up in Sault Ste. Marie, back in 2008 after her death. She died in the bungalow her husband had built many years ago, just down the road from their first wartime house. Her mother was stubborn and refused to leave her home, even after many suggested she move to a senior's residence. 

"She said she was not leaving her house until they carried her out," said Hayes. Indeed, she passed away after having a stroke at home.

Hayes packed up her mother's house, but had held on to the jacket.

"It was a memory. I thought it was a nice little jacket and was 100 per cent wool and I thought, 'Oh, this is a nice little thing, you know?' So I held on to it." 

But this year, Hayes made the decision to let go of the jacket and as I ended my call with her, she thanked me for letting her know I had it.

"I'm glad to know it's being used."