Yesterday morning, VB reader Linda Bassett put out an appeal on VB’s Facebook page and the readers came up trumps again.
Linda had received a phone call from an Australian man at 8am asking if she was related to John Bassett.
The caller explained that he was trying to trace an old school friend of his partner – who had grown up on the Island but now lived in Australia. They thought they’d try Linda’s number as she shares the surname of said old school friend’s husband (John Bassett), which they found in the phone book.
As it turned out, Linda was no relation to John, who she was told may have lived in the Sandown area, with sons living in Brading and run a novelty gift shop. Coincidentally and just to confuse you even more, Linda herself is Australian but now living in Ryde!
The power of the VB social network
Knowing the strength of the VB social media network (we’ve had some great results with Lost & Found), Linda put out an appeal, giving some details of the person her Australian caller was seeking.
It wasn’t long, about 10 minutes in fact, before the replies started coming in from those who recognised the description.
To cut a long story short (there were many offering help in connecting the Bassetts) the wife of John Bassett was found and reunited with her old school friend (the partner of the Australian caller – are you keeping up?), who had emigrated to Australia, but happened to be over in the UK on a visit.
The final outcome was that we understand they’d planned to meet in Ryde yesterday afternoon after many years without contact before the Australia couple went back home today.
What a great story. Well done VB Facebookers!
