Margret White has a very special family heirloom that has travelled great distances both over time and distance.
The silk golden blanket has been passed down within the family since the Second World War and reminds her about challenges her ancestors faced.
“It means everything in the world to me,” says White.
The memento was sent home to Cape Breton from a soldier in the 1940s. He wanted his mother to have it while he was gone, but unfortunately he never returned to collect it. Now the blanket stays in the hands of his only surviving sister. She keeps it in a place that is as close to her heart as possible.
During the Second World War, White's brother Raymond Goyetche was serving in Italy. He sent the golden blanket to his mother back home in Arichat as a souvenir.
But just weeks later in 1944, Goyetche was killed. Today he remains buried in Italy at the Cassino War Cemetery.
The blanket travelled full circle, coincidently into the hands of the family again.
"He had promised to send me something, and of course he didn't get the chance to,” White says. “Now I got this in a roundabout way and I just love it."
Germaine MacDonald is White’s daughter. She says the blanket has travelled great distances before surprisingly arriving back to the intended owner.
"They took it from Arichat to Newfoundland, to Ontario then to New Brunswick. He passed away in New Brunswick in October, and then it was sent back here to Richmond County where it was sent to originally in '43," says MacDonald.
When Raymond Goyetche first sent this blanket home during the war to his sister, she was only 18. Now 91, having it back after all these years holds brand new meaning.
"As I say, $1 million wouldn't buy it," says White.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald.
