The day Barry and Margaret Sharman were married in 1968, they brought their wedding party to a photographer’s studio not far from their home in Canada. The group posed for some portraits, but weeks later when the photos were ready, there was a problem.
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The Sharmans, who were cash-strapped newlyweds, did not have enough money to pay for the photos. With a heavy heart, they left them at the studio in Armstrong, B.C., near Enderby, where Margaret grew up.
Margaret often thought about the photos, she said, but she and Barry had moved to Vancouver Island and were busy raising two sons. Several years after the wedding, Margaret decided to inquire about the photos, but she learned that W. E. Saby Photography had closed, and she couldn’t track down the owner, who took the photos.
“It was disappointing, but I thought, ‘OK, he’s left town, and the photos have probably been destroyed,’” said Margaret, 76. “I just put it in the back of my mind and moved on.”
Then last month, more than 56 years after she and Barry walked down the aisle, she received an email from one of her former bridesmaids and longtime friend Sandy Farynuk.
Farynuk, who is president of the Enderby and District Museum Society, had just gotten a black-and-white photo of a wedding party from a historical museum, the Armstrong Spallumcheen Museum and Art Gallery.
A local historian and Armstrong museum volunteer sent it to Farynuk after looking through a stack of photos that had been donated, and thought she recognized a young Sandy Farynuk in one of them.
“I said, ‘Oh my God, yes, that’s me,’” recalled Farynuk, 76. “I had never before seen that picture.”
When Margaret Sharman opened the email from Farynuk, she said she burst into tears. She and Barry now live two hours from Enderby in Penticton, B.C., and they had also never seen the picture.
“It was so emotional to see a photo of our entire wedding party,” she said. “I was stunned.”
“It was especially touching to see my older sister Ruth in the photo,” Margaret added, noting that her sister is standing next to her in the group portrait. “She was my maid of honor, and she passed away last year.”
Farynuk told Margaret she’d have a copy printed of the photo. But then a few days later, she learned that the Armstrong museum had more studio shots showing the Sharmans in their wedding attire. She wanted to surprise the couple.
“It was right before Christmas, so I also had copies made of those photos, then I gave them to their son to deliver to them over the holidays,” Farynuk said. “I’ve known Margie since I was 2 – we’ve been friends our whole lives.”
“I knew how much these would mean to her,” she said.
The other photographs included a portrait of the newlyweds and a bridal photo. Margaret was 20 and Barry was 21.
The portraits were found tucked inside an envelope in a large box of photos and negatives donated from a garage sale, according to Jackie Pearase, administrator of the Enderby & District Museum and Archives. The Penticton Western News reported on the find.
“The photos had apparently never been picked up from the photographer, and the person who bought them decided the [Armstrong] museum should have them,” Pearase said.
Barry Sharman said when his wife opened the package of photos on Christmas Eve, they were both immediately taken back to their wedding reception at the Enderby Drill Hall on July 20, 1968. Margaret was 20 and Barry was 21.
A wedding guest who was friends with the bride’s family did something that surprised and amused Barry.
“At the end of the night, one of them picked Marge up, took her shoe off and passed it around so people could fill it with money,” said Barry, 78.
He said the donations paid for their honeymoon: several nights in Banff and Jasper National Park, and a week at Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island at his parents’ place.
He and Margaret (her maiden name was Towers) met while they were both working at a bank in Enderby in 1967.
“She was gorgeous and so much fun to be around,” he said. “Right away, I thought, ‘This is the gal for me.’”
As it turned out, Margaret was the one who proposed.
“After dating for a while, I told him, ‘I love you and I want to marry you. Will you marry me?’” she said.
She said her parents did not have a lot of money – her father was a mechanic, and luckily, her mother was a seamstress.
“My mother made all of the bridesmaids’ pink dresses, and she made my wedding gown and put a lot of little daisies around the sleeves,” Margaret recalled. “Everything was simple but beautiful.”
“After the wedding, my mom took my dress and remade it for every local bride who couldn’t afford one,” she added. “Although she didn’t have much, my mother was always generous to everyone.”
Friends took a few personal snapshots at the wedding and gave them to the Sharmans, but they decided purchasing the studio photos was too much of a luxury, Barry said.
“I was flabbergasted when I saw the photos – that day is all a blur to me now,” he said. “I have to laugh at the group photo where nobody is smiling. We look like we all came from a funeral. But I know we were actually very happy that day.”
Margaret said she wishes she could track down the photographer, known as W.E. Saby. She said she’d tried to no avail.
“He’s an angel,” she said. “He could have destroyed those photos, and he didn’t. If he is still alive, I’d like to tell him ‘thank you.’ The photos he took 56 years ago are the most thoughtful, miraculous gift I could ever have imagined.”