After Garrett Elliot found an old Polaroid photo of a couple from the 1970s or ’80s under his washroom vanity while renovating his Pimlico Place home, he took to social media to identify the pair.
Elliot was then connected with a former neighbour of his home, Ben Rotteveel, who immediately knew the pictured couple when he saw the photo on Facebook.
“When I saw Bob and Dawna’s picture and somebody else commented that it was a different person I thought, ‘No, no, no, no, these people were my neighbours across the street, they’d become friends of ours, it’s not them, it’s Bob and Dawna,'” says Rotteveel.
He says that his family lived across the street to Elliott’s current home.
“We did a little partying in the old days and we have some really, really good memories,” Rotteveel says. “And their kids grew up with our kids and there’s some fantastic memories there.”
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With that confirmation, Bob and Dawna Fitzsimmons were identified as the pair in the photo.
Rotteveel contacted the couple’s daughter online to let them know what had been found, and was met by excitement.
“I am so grateful to Garrett for redoing the bathroom and putting in a new counter,” says Dawna Fitzsimmons. “Because it’s given us a trip down memory lane that we really needed at this time of year, well at this time period.”
Now living just outside of Perth, Ont., Dawna says that the couple has no idea how the picture would have gotten there, but was likely taken around 1978 during a New Year’s Eve party.
“Pimlico Place was a little community,” says Dawna. “Everybody, we knew almost everybody on the street, our babysitters lived next door. It was a wonderful area; it was a wonderful street of people who really cared about people and great friendships came from that.”
“It clearly was an important part of the time in our lives,” says Bob Fitzsimmons. “We moved down there and didn’t know anybody in 1976.”
The pair has since received calls from old friends and former neighbours, reliving past memories.
Dawna says it brought back memories of living in Kingston and becoming a part of the community.
“When Bob took me out of Ottawa, he took me kicking and screaming cause I didn’t want to go to Kingston,” she says. “And then when it came time to move back to Ottawa, he took me kicking and screaming again because I didn’t want to leave.”
For current home owner Elliott, solving the mystery of the hidden photo shows the living history his home holds.
“Things are always changing and evolving and, you know, there were people here before us, there will be people here after us,” Elliott says. “It’s just that connection tying us all together, it’s really fascinating.
“And, you know, it’s a good reminder that we’re not alone. Everybody is out there and everybody is kind of connected.”
Elliott hopes to return the photo to the Fitzsimmons as a reminder of their happy memories.
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