STELLARTON, N.S. -- A Nova Scotia woman perusing some old paper money on sale at a weekend market has found what she believes is her late mother's signature on an old $2 bill.
A friend had asked her to go to the weekend craft market, which she says she wouldn't normally attend.
"Sorta not my scene," says Marlene Wells.
But she went and bumped into her old friend Steve Brennan, who had a table set up.
"He's actually a coin collector -- a money note collector," Wells said.
Wells is originally from Newfoundland and she was looking for some old discontinued money.
"We talked about Newfoundland coins," Wells said.
She was looking at the items on Brennan's table when she stumbled upon some old Canadian currency.
"When I looked down at the $2 bills, this name was on the bill," Wells said. "Shirley was on the bill."
That got her attention because her late mother's name was Shirley.
She then studied the bill and said to Brennan.
"I think that's my mother's signature on a $2 bill," Brennan says.
Wells' mother has been dead for 12 years, but she recognized her handwriting right away.
"The emotions that came over me, I can't describe," Wells said. "My stomach did flip flops."
Brennan gave her the bill -- free of charge -- and Wells took it home, dug out her mother's diary, and sure enough, the signature was a spot-on match.
"The dot for the I is always over the R," Wells said.
The $2 bill was printed in 1986, which means Wells' mother signed it decades ago.
"My best guess is that this happened between 1986 and 1995," Wells said.
Discovering the signed bill has brought back a flood of memories.
"She's been in my mind quite a bit the last couple of days," Wells said.
And she's absolutely amazed that she found it -- or it found her.
Wells is not sure why her mother signed the bill, but she's glad she did.
It's a story to tell, a blast from the past, and a newly-found cherished memento.
