FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS — OVER A USED CHAIR

On. Sept. 6, Thea Lenna saw a pastel-painted fish chair in a Baltimore secondhand shop, priced at US$740. She took a photograph and posted it on popular Facebook group Weird Secondhand Finds That Just Need To Be Shared. When Emily DelFavero of Syracuse, N.Y., one of the group's two million members, saw it, she paused in shock. “I had that chair tattooed on my leg two years ago,” she said. Here's how these

stories intersect.

1 RIGHTFUL HEIR

DelFavero, 29, then posted a photo of her tattoo, adding that it is emblematic of her mother, who collected pieces by the chair's designer, Victoria MacKenzie-Childs. The group went wild, saying the chair was destined to belong to her. “People were begging me to make a GoFundMe,” said the mechanic. “I was thinking I would buy the chair myself; I wasn't looking for donations, but I realized within minutes that people wanted to be part

of this.”

2 MANY PITCHED IN

The store cut the price to US$600, and within 24 hours the fund had enough money. Then came the complicated part: transporting it more than 500 kilometres. Rosita Smith, 30, created a new Facebook group called From Baltimore to Emily D. Many of its 2,500 members volunteered to drive the chair. The trip would have seven legs, each an hour long.

3 CIRCLING BACK

One member contacted the designer. “I was touched to tears,” MacKenzie-Childs said. “I felt deeply grateful the chair was a

symbol of the story.”

4 DEEP MEANING

DelFavero's home in Auburn, N.Y., was filled with MacKenzie-Childs pieces, including fish plates. DelFavero regularly visited the artist's studio in Aurora, N.Y., as a child and as a young adult. There about four years ago, she spotted a dollhouse version of the chair, and wanted a tattoo of it. “It reminded me of our dinner plates, lemonade pitcher, serving bowl,” she said.

5 HOME AT LAST

The chair arrived Monday. Sarah Edwards, 36, drove it the

last leg. “Pulling in here was one of the most exciting things

I have ever done,” Edwards said over the phone, standing beside DelFavero and the chair. Edwards had even picked up custom fish doughnuts a local bakery had donated. “It's the toughest year any of us have ever had, and there is nothing but happiness in this story.”