Susanna Freymark
A bulbous glass jar filled with matchbooks from around the world sat on the reception counter at the Ramada Hotel in Ballina for two years.
Staff from the Ramada found the jar with its tight cork lid floating by the rock wall in the boat harbour next to the hotel. They fished it out, put a sign on it and placed it on the counter in the hope of finding its owner.
The sign said:
Found in the 2022 floods. Spotted floating along the river during the floods, Ramada staff fished this jar out of the water. We would love to return this item to its owner. If you recognise it please let reception know!
The jar with its matchbook collection belonged to 62 year old Annette Dale.
Her home at East Wardell flooded in February-March 2022. She was rescued by “a good-looking man on a bright yellow jet ski”.
Annette was carrying her suitcase as they jetted down the Richmond River to escape the floods.
After the floods with help from friends and the army, Annette moved her belongings out of the house and into the shed. She spent time rebuilding and repairing the flood damage to her home.
Then came the second flood a few weeks later. The jar of matchbooks was in the shed and floated away. Annette didn’t even realise the jar had gone missing until she went looking for it again.
The matchbooks, filled with matches, used to be left at the counters of restaurants. Annette started collecting them when she was 21. She has matchbooks from California and across America.
“I used to smoke cigarettes in those days,” she said.
During those two years the jar sat at the Ramada, Annette even went there twice with a friend. She didn’t see the jar.
Then she got a call from her daughter Katelin Dale saying she had something for her.
Katelin was able to convince the Ramada that the jar belonged to her mother by describing the teeth marks Katelin made in the cork lid when she was a child.
Katelin took a video of her mother seeing the matchbook collection for the first time and posted it on social media.
Everyone has loved it and made so many comments, Annette said.
“We all lost things in the floods that meant a lot to us.
“We struggled, we wondered and something came back.”
That’s why people have enjoyed the story, she said.
Annette is taking the jar and matchbooks back to the Ramada Hotel in Ballina this Friday to thank the staff who found it.
It’s been quite a journey for Annette since the floods.
“I did a phoenix. Everything was totally destroyed and I had to rise from the ashes again.
“I learned to be even more resilient.”
Like the jar of matchbooks that floated from East Wardell to Ballina, Annette is a survivor and her joy at finding her collection is a delightful story to share.
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