The lost Plunket record book that inspired a serendipitous search for its owners has found its family.
Cambridge Hospice Shop manager Justine Webb-Elliott, left, with the Plunket book mum, Sandra Maguiness. Photo by Viv Posselt
How the search came to an end is unusual to say the least. It’s also testimony to the power of the press and a hospice shop volunteer who describes herself as “a dog with a bone” when driven by a passion for something.
The News carried the story last week of the lost Plunket book which arrived at the hospice shop in a box of donated craft papers. It gave baby Sarah-Jane’s birthdate as ‘8-6-75’, but the surname was difficult to read.
Cambridge Hospice shop volunteer, who asked to be named simply as Rosemary, knew the book would be important for the family, so with the support of Hospice Shop manager Justine Well-Elliott, went all out to find its owner.
“I think I drove Justine mad,” Rosemary said, “I was like a dog with a bone, but I just couldn’t throw it out without trying everything to find the owner.”
A close up of the Plunket Book.
She remembered the box of craft papers coming in, beautifully bagged into different colours. The care taken appealed to scrapbooker Rosemary – but little did she know that the Plunket baby’s mum, Sandra Maguiness, was also a scrapbooker.
Rosemary’s dogged determination saw an appeal put up on social media, then she propped the book up on the shop counter for about a month. Nothing came of either attempt.
The News story was spotted online by the Raglan-based old schoolfriend of one of Sandra’s two sons, then in Whale Bay. The old school chum contacted Sandra’s son, who then emailed his mum.
Sandra, who picked up the Plunket book on Saturday morning, said: “Only by chance did I open that email!”
She contacted Good Local editor Roy Pilott.
Sandra now lives on the outskirts of Cambridge. It is where she and her late husband Wayne settled on leaving Silverdale some 20 years ago. Their daughter Sarah Jane was a welcome addition to the family in 1975 after the arrival of two boys. “My husband was over the moon.”
Sandra is fastidious about keeping family records, including those relating to relatives’ wartime stories. One is the tragic story of her two great-uncles who were killed 13 days apart in WW1 France, aged just 19 and 20.
“I’ve kept the children’s Plunket books, all their school records and so on in folders, so I was really surprised to see this Plunket book was missing. I regularly visit the Cambridge Hospice Shop, but I must have not noticed it on the counter.”
The Plunket Book
It was her search for another family item she feared may have been inadvertently dropped off at the outlet that led her to box up the craft papers in the first place.
“I had been looking for a wartime badge and was worried it had slipped into another box of donations I had passed on to the hospice shop,” she said. “I even went in and asked if they had seen it, but they hadn’t. I went through the house to find it, and it was during that tidying up process that I boxed up the craft papers. The Plunket book must have slipped in somehow.”
As for Sarah-Jane? She no longer lives in the area but is delighted her Plunket book has been found.
Super sleuth Rosemary is also delighted. “I’m a former teacher and used to drive my bosses mad when I got stuck into something I was keen on.”
Another of her success stories is the installation of a safety crossing on Forest Lake Road, the result that time of her dogged pursuit of local authorities.
See: Searching for Sarah – 128
Cambridge Hospice Shop manager Justine Webb-Elliott holding the lost Plunket book. Photo: Viv Posselt
