“My kids think it’s brilliant, and we can’t believe the condition of it. It’s obviously better than keeping it on the fridge!”
A Scots mum has been reunited with a self-portrait she drew as a little girl in the 90s after it was found hidden behind a wall in her old family home.
Julie Donaldson, 37, was stunned when she was handed the colourful drawing, perfectly preserved after being sealed away in the Arbroath home for nearly three decades.
The heartwarming discovery was made by Lewys Cunningham and his girlfriend Nicola Porter, who bought Julie’s old home on Andrew Barton Street in the town last year.
The couple have been gutting the house as part of major renovations when they stumbled across the childhood treasure.
Lewys, 21, told the Record: “We’ve been renovating the whole house from the ground up since we bought it last year. We started on the kitchen and found all this wooden cladding on the walls. We ripped it off and behind it was this drawing.
“I don’t know how it ended up there but it was in perfect condition. I noticed it said, ‘Julie Henderson’, was dated ‘1995’, and said she was ‘seven years old’.
“I honestly couldn’t believe it was really that old. I thought at first it had to be more recent, but it turned out to be from the 90s.”
The sketch showed a young Julie with blue eyes, brown hair and weighing 24kg, along with other personal details about her school life and favourite activities.
Keen to reunite the picture with its owner, Lewys turned to social media. His Facebook post on August 12 sparked an “instant” response, with locals quick to join the dots and track down Julie, who now lives just a few streets away.
Lewys said: “It turns out Julie’s mum lived close by, and she was completely shocked when I turned up with it. I’m just glad to give them such a lovely memory.”
Julie, who is now a mum of four, said her whole family have been both amused and touched by the find.
She told the Record: “It’s brought back so many memories – it’s just amazing! People found me straight away, so the likeness must be uncanny. All the little stats I wrote about myself have made me laugh – I must have been quite proud of them.
“We lived in that house from 1990 until 2001, so all of my childhood was spent there. It was actually my parents who renovated the kitchen, so why the joiner put cladding over the picture, I’ve no idea.
“My kids think it’s brilliant, and we can’t believe the condition of it. It’s obviously better than keeping it on the fridge!”
Julie also revealed the discovery could lead to another trip down memory lane, after remembering she buried a time capsule in the garden back in 2000.
She added: “Lewys said he’s going to try and find it and dig it up too. It’s nice to share something positive like this when there’s so much going on in the world.”
