Gillian Cootes, left, and Denise Watt with an old telegram. Photo / David Haxton
Gillian Cootes, left, and Denise Watt with an old telegram. Photo / David Haxton
When Denise Watt isn’t doing her housekeeping duties at Arvida Waikanae Lodge, she loves nothing better than checking out what’s on offer at opportunity shops.
It’s the thrill of the find that keeps her coming back for more.
“I’m an op shop freak,” she laughed.
Sometimes she searches for something specific such as the recent time when she was looking for a small metal filing cabinet for magazines in her laundry.
She found exactly what she wanted, a three-drawer filing cabinet, at Porirua’s landfill recycling shop.
It read, ‘Congratulations on the new arrival. Have just thought of a new name for her. Eunice Hilda May. Exquisite names don’t you think. All my love to you both. Eunice and Mick.’
Watt said she “loved it [telegram] so much” that she got a local picture framer to put it in a recycled picture frame.
The framed telegram. Photo / David Haxton
During her housekeeping duties, she wondered if one of the residents, Gillian Cootes, who had been living in the lodge for about a year, might know anything about the telegram.
The chances were remote but it was worth asking.
To her complete surprise, Cootes knew the writer without hesitation.
“She was my best friend who passed away 10 years ago.
“If I wanted to get her dandy up I used to call her Eunice Hilda May over the shop intercom because I kept losing her.
“I named my daughter Annette but used May as part of her full name.”
Eunice was married to Mick Zino.
“They were an Italian family from Island Bay and used to have Zino Buildings.”
