Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

HAY RIVER
A wallet from the 1970s found by workers during renovations at Hay River's Diamond Jenness Secondary School (DJSS) has created a little bit of a mystery.

Bonnie Crowther holds a wallet and an ID card found inside Diamond Jenness Secondary School dating back over three decades ago. The wallet, belonging to the late Anne Townsend, was discovered during renovations at Hay River's Diamond Jenness Secondary School. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

The woman's folding wallet belonged to Anne Townsend, a former resident of Hay River who died in Alberta earlier this year.

However, Townsend's friend Bonnie Crowther doesn't know how the wallet ended up in the school.

"She would never have been a student there," Crowther said.

She explained Townsend attended a school on Vale Island up to Grade 11 and then took Grade 12 at Camrose Lutheran College in Alberta in the 1972-73 school year, which was the first time DJSS was open.

Crowther said the only way she can explain the wallet being found at DJSS is if Townsend was later in the school for some reason.

A driver's licence found in the wallet helps date it. The licence was issued in April of 1975.

"I don't even recall Anne losing it," Crowther said. "I mean it's going on 40 years now. It's just bizarre that it was there all those years."

However the wallet got in the school – behind a locker in a girls' change room – it is now a treasured item that Crowther will send to Townsend's family in Alberta.

The wallet contained no money, but did hold a photo ID, addresses, phone numbers and various cards, including a youth pass for Pacific Western Airlines.

One item in the wallet was a blood type card.

"I remember that because I still have mine," Crowther said. "We got those done in 1969. We went to the Canada Summer Games in Halifax and to travel you needed your blood typed. Her little card was still in there. Things like that just really brought back a lot of those memories."

Townsend's sister, Lynne Scaddan of Lloydminster, Alta., has no memory of Anne losing the wallet.

"She kind of lost stuff lots of time," Scaddan said with a laugh.

She speculated the wallet may have ended up in DJSS because her sister had volunteered for a track and field meet or some other sporting event at the school.

Now that it has been found, it will become a family keepsake.

"We just kind of thought it was strange, considering she just passed away," Scaddan said of the discovery.

Townsend died on Feb. 10 at the age of 55 after a five-year battle with cancer.

She was a resident of Lloydminster, where she managed a golf and country club for almost 25 years.

DJSS vice-principal Lynne Beck said the wallet was discovered in July.

"It was really neat, actually, to think that here is a piece of the history of the school," she said.

The wallet was given to Crowther in late August.

Beck had mentioned the wallet to her husband, who works with Crowther at South Mackenzie Correctional Centre, and he recognized Anne Townsend's name because he filled in delivering a program for Crowther when she attended her friend's funeral.

Beck is not aware of any other items from the past being discovered by work crews involved in the renovations at Diamond Jenness.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.