Joy as treasured gift is returned by stranger

Stolen garden ornament was daughter's gift to father

A FOUR-year-old’s gift to her father was stolen from their garden and then replaced by an anonymous well-wisher.

Mother Zena Buck, from Craven Road, Newbury, said: “Our four-year-old daughter Ivy chose a garden flamingo for my husband as a gift for Father’s Day last year.

“And she absolutely adored it.

“She would move it around the garden giving it different spots and I even found the flamingo in the kitchen once as she brought it in to show my dad, who was visiting.

“Then one day the other week, when we were out, she sadly said to me, ‘I gave Dadda a mingo – she can’t pronounce flamingo – but he hasn’t got it any more’.

“It gets moved around the garden quite a bit so I hadn’t noticed, but she was right.

“I searched around, thinking I’d find the flamingo somewhere, but it was gone.”

Mrs Buck posted on the Community Matters Facebook page asking if anyone had seen it.

There were numerous comments, but no sightings.

Mrs Buck said: “Then a couple of days later I received a message from someone I’d never met asking where we lived, as they had a little something for Ivy.

“The following day we opened our front door to go to school and there was a flamingo waiting on the doorstep.

“It was almost identical and came with a little note tied around her neck with a ribbon saying: ‘To Ivy, remember there are many many more good people in the world, too’.

“I was blown away at the generosity of this stranger.

“It was so touching that someone we’d never met had done something so lovely and kind for our family.

“Ivy was overjoyed at ‘Mingo’ being back in the garden and ran outside to choose a spot for her and fed her some biscuits.”