Hello Downhomer, My name is Samantha Alexander and I’m from Deer Lake, Newfoundland. My husband is from St John’s and I’m writing you this letter concerning our most recent trip home. Our trip was wonderful and of course it went by way too fast.

This story I guess should begin with our stay out at Horse Chops in Cape Broyle at Nan and Pop’s cabin. Relaxing and shore fishing, just getting away from all the lights and sounds of our beautiful city. While there, we decided to go to Ferryland Beach and look for rocks and feathers and get our daughter Rebecca’s little hands wet with the salt sea water. We were wandering the beach and Rebecca was digging in the sand and keeping every rock she found. Doug picked her up and brought her to the ocean. He bent down and as he did Rebecca reached out as a wave came up. She squealed in delight as the bitter cold water soaked her hands. And that was the first time our little angel touched the Atlantic Ocean water.

So the end of our little adventure was coming to an end. We took plenty of pictures and collected plenty of rocks, shells and feathers. But before we left Doug realized something, he reached up and found out that his very expensive Oakley sunglasses were no longer atop his baseball hat. And let’s just take a moment to tell you that although they were a pretty penny when he got them six years ago, they have certainly paid for themselves. Doug has never even misplaced these glasses in the last six years. Not as much as a scratch did he inflict on them. And now they were missing. And for someone who never looses or abuses anything he has, this was a huge shock to him. I won’t even go into the language he used to express himself. So we literally combed the beach looking for them. Doug stood in front of the ocean and stared out waiting to see them. He later said he didn’t care how far out they would have been, he would have jumped in after them. And I would have been waiting ashore with a blanket. For three hours we looked, it’s a good thing we brought lunch along. But we didn’t find them. At that point we all were cursing them and writing them off as we made our way to the car.

When we got back to the cabin it was raining pretty hard. Doug grabbed a good stiff drink, some worms and a pole and went fishing. I guess he was saying his goodbyes. He came back about two and a half hours later, still bitter and soaked to the bone. He was not to be smiling the next morning either.

So around noon or so the next day, Doug and Pop decided to go and take another look on Ferryland Beach. I was of no help by saying something along the lines of “get over it already,” but I went along for the ride. Nan and Rebecca stayed at the cabin. In the car in the way there I said a little prayer and hoped that his property would be returned to him. But I was still skeptical about it all.

We arrived to the beach and, chose our paths and started searching. I was nearest to the water and was looking at all the sand and was thinking to myself that they were buried. The tide had come in and had went back out again over night. I thought for sure they were under the sand. So I was just aimlessly kicking around in the sand as I walked. I still was thinking there was no way. I looked briefly behind me to see Doug and Pop standing together looking at the ground. They waved me over. And then they called me over. I started running and saying to myself aloud “no way, they didn’t find them.” The closer I got to them the bigger Doug’s smile got. He was brushing them off on his pants as I got to them. And he was re-attaching one of the arms.

He said he was looking and cursing of course and kicking the line of seaweed left tangled in the rocks by the tide. He looked at this weird-looking string of seaweed and kicked it hard only to send his shades flying through the air. Pop had seen this and helped him look for the missing arm, all while I was making my way towards them. They were found, and Doug was so excited he picked me up and swung me in a circle.

Upon inspection they look great, except for two little scratches that we chalked up to battle scars. The arm that fell off was a little loose but nothing too terrible. The little rubber bands on the upper arm were gooey and loose, but after time they dried and fit like a glove again. He said he didn’t care if they smelled like dried seaweed and ocean water. He would still wear them and I did not doubt that for a minute.

On the way back to the cabin we stopped and had a celebratory soft serve ice cream. And you should have seen the look on Nan’s face when she saw the sunglasses and the wonderful smile on her son's face. We were all so happy and began to think of their journey over that rainy night. We suspected that when Doug brought Rebecca to the water and bent down to get her hands wet, they fell off and went for a swim. The tide had carried them in during the night and gave them a good beating on the rocks. They had become tangled in the seaweed and left there as the tide retreated. And the fact that the arm that had come off and was found not three feet away is amazing.

So we found out not only that some Oakleys float, but that we should never think that something is a loss. It always pays to keep trying. And to any other person, they might just be any old pair of sunglasses. Even I thought it was hopeless. But we all learned something that day. No matter how big or small they may be, there are such things as miracles.
  Submitted By: Douglas Healey