WATCH: It can be tough when you have to sell off the house you grew up in, but as Gil Tucker shows us, some Calgarians are hoping a precious piece of family history will find a new life and a new home.
CALGARY – It’s been a fixture in the Vandernet family home since 1970, but now it’s time to say goodbye to their dad’s old pipe organ.
Made 80 years ago in Toronto, the instrument was originally shipped west to a Calgary funeral home.
After Herb Vandernet bought it from the home, he spent two years building his basement around the organ, its 300 pipes taking up an entire room.
Following his death last fall, his children have put the house up for sale. With a deal pending, it’s slated for demolition to make way for an infill.
Herb’s daughter, Alice Ward, is hopeful the piece of history can be preserved.
“Our biggest fear is that this organ is going to end up in the landfill,” she said. “It’s too beautiful and it meant too much to my father to have that happen.”
The family’s now offering it up for no charge, hoping it might find a new home in a small town church.
“It’s like an organ donation of a different sort,” said Ward.
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