Photos in puddles, guitars in coves: These are the sentimental items Fiona left behind

While walking on a beach near where his two homes and shed used to stand, David Robin Ingrim of Port aux Basques caught a glimpse of something he recognized: a scruffy, 60-year-old teddy bear from his childhood. 

"Matter of fact, it's in the same shape. A couple little holes into it from over the years, but on top of that, it's in perfect shape," said Ingrim. 

He plans to give the bear — which is now hanging in his friend's shed to dry off — to his three-month-old grandson. 

People in the town on Newfoundland's southwest coast are combing beaches and rummaging through rubble to recover personal and sentimental items in hopes of reuniting them with their owners.

"The first picture I found was just blowing on a sidewalk," said Nikita Roberts.

After finding photos in puddles and on sidewalks, Roberts and Nicole Anderson started a Lost and Found page on Facebook to help match items with people. 

"We want to reunite as many people as we can with their items," said Anderson. 

"For a lot of us, I mean, our photos are probably on the cloud or on social media, but a lot of the older generation who did lose their houses, those photos, they'll never be able to get them back," said Roberts.

'We have to have something to hold onto'

Some photos Roberts found belong to Peggy Savery, who moved back home three years ago after living and working in Ontario for most of her life.

Savery's 60-year-old home, which had been recently renovated, was destroyed in the storm. 

"My bedroom was right on the ocean … and the sound that brought me peace before. I don't know that I feel the same way about it anymore," she said.

While Savery and her husband and son were standing on the road to get a view of what was left of their house, a neighbour walked over and handed her a photo. It was a photo of Peggy Savery and her husband taken 43 years ago.

"[It] means something to us, like our photographs and little mementoes and things that probably have no value but … we've lost everything and we have to have something to hold on to," said Savery. 

While Savery is grateful she's been reunited with her photos, it's been difficult to see her family's personal items — like her children's photos, a live-edge shelf her husband crafted by hand, and an old ID card — strewn across the wreckage all over town. 

"It's just hard to be walking down the road and finding pieces of your life everywhere."

She's hoping to recover other objects, like her children's baby items, her father's old journals and other things that are irreplaceable. 

'A part of the healing'

Scott Strickland has been looking through the debris to find items for his neighbours and friends who have lost everything, and thinks those pieces will be a key part of recovering. 

"I think it's going to be a very crucial part of some of the healing that's going to go on here," said Strickland. 

Strickland found an old electric guitar that washed up in a cove, and after posting the photo on Facebook, quickly found its owner, Adam Cross.

"I got it when I was 13 years old," said Cross, who is now 36. "I remember getting it for Christmas with a small amp and I drove my parents crazy playing it, because it had distortion in it and it was really loud."

Cross, who ran a tattoo studio in his house, was at home when water started to surround the house.

"The house was shaking," he said.

"Remember the scene in Titanic where they're going through the hallways and they got water up to their waist and the lights start flickering? That's what it kind of reminded me of."

Less than an hour after he escaped his house, neighbours texted him to tell him it was on fire and then swept away with the waves. 

Another guitar of his, a Fender Telecaster, washed up on a beach, with two strings still attached. He also recovered hockey cards, a signed poster and a stool for his drum kit. 

Bobbi Russell and her husband have been rummaging through items looking for "anything that might mean anything to someone."

She found a backpack, old photos, and an old fish-finding device, and was able to deliver them to the owner. 

"He hugged me three times and I hugged him and it was comforting," said Russell. 

"It's been really hard but we're all in this."

LISTEN | Port aux Basques residents discuss salvaging items from their destroyed houses:

Expert tips on how to preserve items

Miki Lee, conservator at The Rooms, Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial museum and archives, says many people don't realize that items like old journals and old bibles can be preserved — even if they are wet.

"The littlest things can mean so much," said Lee. 

"An object can carry a whole family history and can carry a sentiment, so they're very important to salvage and preserve."

Lee acknowledged people might have more pressing matters to deal with but had some tips on how to preserve items for now — and offered to provide advice later on how to salvage them.

For now, Lee said, wet paper-based items like photos and journals and even videotapes and cassettes should be laid flat, then sealed in a plastic bag and put in a freezer. 

Freezing the items while wet will prevent them from getting mouldy and falling apart. It's important not to handle the items with your hands because flicking through books can further damage them. 

"You can leave it there and deal with everything else you have to deal with and when the time comes that you want to go back and look at those, I can walk you through the steps of how to preserve it," said Lee. 

"It's just a matter of buying a bit of time so that we can deal with it in a calm, controlled environment, and hopefully it'll provide some comfort down the road."

LISTEN | How to preserve and salvage items rescued from the water:

Lee said the saltiness of ocean water adds an added element of deterioration.

"When it comes to things like metals and an electric guitar being one of them, we need to rinse that out, we need to get rid of the chloride right away."

Cross had the right instinct; he washed his battered electric guitars off with a garden hose. 

Miki Lee said anyone looking for information on how to preserve items can email [email protected]. The Rooms also has information available online on salvaging family heirlooms and memorabilia.

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