A lost keychain sparks connection between Hawaii man and Sask. family

A nostalgic Facebook post about an old keychain has unexpectedly linked a man in California with a couple from White City, Saskatchewan. Jacob Carr has more.

Ray Chu, originally from Hawaii and now living in San Francisco, was going through old trinkets in January when he came across a keychain he didn’t recognize.

“Most of them were familiar, with Hawaii addresses or phone numbers, or businesses I remembered visiting as a kid,” Chu said. “But that one keychain from Percival Mercury and Ross Baumgartner just didn’t seem familiar.”

A Google search led him to the former Percival Mercury dealership, now Capital Ford Lincoln in Regina. Chu posted a photo of the keychain on the Nostalgic Regina Saskatchewan Facebook page, sparking a flood of responses.

The post eventually reached Baumgartner’s daughter, Jackie Brown.

“Shock. At first, I thought maybe it was a joke,” she said. “But it was. It was pretty cool.”

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A post Chu made on Jan. 29, fell exactly two months after Baumgartner’s passing. Brown and her husband Simon said the timing felt meaningful, and the overwhelming response to the post has been heartening.

“People are coming out of the woodwork saying, ‘I knew Ross,’ or sharing memories of buying cars from him,” Simon said. “It made us feel good inside, like maybe Ross is still around in some way.”

For Brown, the keychain brought back memories of her childhood at the dealership, from hanging out on the lot to Christmas parties with staff and other children.

The keychain will soon be sent to the Browns as a keepsake. Chu said he has been in touch with the family and wanted it to return home.

The mystery remains how a keychain from a Regina dealership ended up in Hawaii, but Chu said connecting it with Baumgartner’s family was worth every moment.