12/24/2021
United after 15 years!!! A great news story!
Paul and I have been creating personalized children’s books for quite a few years. We’ve always taken pride in producing the best quality product possible and having satisfied customers. Our largest sales event over the years has been Christmas at the Glacier, where we’ve met numerous customers/friends and have many repeat customers year after year. We enjoyed seeing the surprised looks on their faces when they realized the book would be ready the same day. We would suggest to them to go shop around while we produced their special gift. As we were producing them on site, we didn’t see the need to get their contact info.
In 2006 we had a book left at the end of the fair, paid for and not picked up. As we all know, Christmas shopping can be exhausting, especially in crowded areas and when accompanied by children. So we packed up the book and brought it home in the hopes of finding its rightful owner. All we had to go on was the child’s name (first, middle and last), age (9 months old) and hometown. I was determined to find the person who ordered it. So I got the telephone book, yes it was that long ago, searched for the last name of the child, which was a very common name, and looked up the exchange for Paradise, 781 and 782. There were many….I phoned them all with no luck. With each call I had to explain my predicament as I couldn’t just ask for the child by name! There were many “sorry I don’t know that child”, and quite a few “no answers”. I was soooo disappointed as I didn’t find the person who placed the order.
Earlier this fall the book resurfaced so I looked at the date, 2006. He is now 15 and may just have a page. I searched his name and found a possible match. I saw that he had a friend with the same first and last name as his middle and last name so I took the chance to send his “friend” a private message, in the hopes he would be a relative. I gave him enough information to establish a possible conversation. When he replied to me that I may have found the right owner, I gave him all the info I had and he confirmed it was indeed his son. He also said they still have the same phone number so I checked my list – yes I kept a list of every number and made notes from each call. Next to his number was “no answer”.
Today, December 23, 2021, the book I printed 15 years ago is in the hands of his mom. And yes, we had a very interesting conversation.
Do you still believe in the magic of Christmas?
Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful families! Stay safe and take care of each other!
