Woman Spotted A Familiar Item For Sale Online, And A Closer Look Unveiled The Wild Truth

A resident of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada, Renée has enjoyed a busy 2022 so far. You see, not only did she celebrate her 60th in May, but she and her husband also reached their 33rd wedding anniversary in August. Plus, with her daughter’s birthday the month prior, summer is always a hectic period in the Forrestall household.

As for work, as hinted at above, Renée plies her trade as an art teacher at a nearby high school, having studied the topic at a specialist university back in the 1980s. Mind you, art wasn’t the only thing that interested the Canadian mom during her younger years. Like we noted earlier, she developed a passion for a certain hobby, too.

Like a lot of other teens, Renée had become fascinated with roller skating. When she wasn’t studying, the Halifax resident would slip on her trusty skates and head to the nearby paved pathways which ran alongside the waterfront close to her home. It was a combination of escape and exercise which the youngster quickly came to value highly.

Yes, Renée didn’t just look at this hobby as a way of letting her hair down and relaxing. In fact, her skating had also provided her with an avenue to escape a very painful situation in her personal life. You see, during that period, someone close to the teenager had passed away. It had been an extremely tough spell, to say the least.

Renée got through it, though, thanks in part to those hours on her skates. Yet while her love of art endured, the future teacher went on to say goodbye to her roller-skating days in the early ’80s. Given how much the hobby had helped to ease her emotional pain, that might appear to have been a strange decision, but clearly she had felt the time had come to leave it behind.

So, that brings us back to May 2022. Renée’s 60th birthday was fast approaching, and she started to reflect on the days she had spent around the waterfront as a youngster. Before she knew it, the mom was desperate to grab a pair of skates again and dust off the skills she’d learnt in the past. But there was just one problem.

Unfortunately, Renée didn’t have any skates lying around the house. By this point, her old pair were long gone. So the Halifax resident decided to bite the bullet and buy a brand-new set for herself. Yet her excitement levels quickly tailed off once she’d taken a closer look at her newly-acquired footwear. Something seemed off, and she couldn’t shake the feeling.

Going into more detail, Renée spoke to People magazine in June 2022. She said, “I didn’t like [the new skates]. They were made out of vinyl and were so stiff. And the boot just didn’t feel good.” All in all, this didn’t represent the most promising of fresh starts for her resurrected hobby. Yet the high school teacher refused to become too downhearted at that stage, though.

Instead, Renée returned to the market with a clearer objective — she wanted to find some skates that were similar to her old ones. But another stumbling block was on the horizon here. Yes, the prices for so-called “vintage pairs” left the mom stunned: she couldn’t believe how expensive they were. Why were the figures so steep?

Well, older styles are very much on trend for skaters at the moment, raising both demand and prices as a result. Nostalgia is a powerful thing! Anyway, Renée baulked at the numbers and quickly changed her approach. She turned her attention to social media, hoping to find a few bargains there. Specifically, the parent zoned in on Facebook Marketplace.

After scanning the social media website, Renée set up an automatic alert whenever Facebook users placed vintage skates on the market. A clever move on her part — but would it pay off? Thankfully, she didn’t have to wait long to find out. Yes, later that week, someone living in the local area posted an ad for a pair of old roller skates.

The user lived in Halifax, and his name was James Bond. No, not that one. That would’ve been a turn-up for the books! Not to mention impossible, seeing as how he’s a fictional character. Anyway, the real Mr Bond priced the rollerblades at $40, which was a much more agreeable figure to Renée. The boots themselves weren’t in the greatest condition, but that didn’t dissuade her in the slightest. There was still one potential issue, though.

As it turned out, James was unsure of the roller skates’ size. He couldn’t give a definitive answer, with no labels to call upon. Instead, the Facebook user had to share a photo of the boots alongside a ruler. According to those measurements, they came in at 10 inches in length. So would that make or break Renée’s interest in them?

Continuing her conversation with People, Renée said, “I got out a ruler and measured my feet. And it turns out that they were 10 inches long, so I reached out and told [James] I’d take [the roller skates].” How’s that for good luck? From there, the art teacher made her way to James’ pad a couple of days after making contact.

Once she arrived, Renée was then given the low-down of what had happened to the roller skates. According to James, his sister had used them in the past, before they ended up in their mom’s cellar. And that’s where the boots had remained for years, gathering dust inside an old container in the dark. They were finally uncovered following the passing of his mom.

While Renée took all this on board, she saw the state of the skates first-hand. The Halifax resident recalled, “They were filthy dirty and looked like Hell. The laces were missing and the wheels were rock hard and yellowed with age.” Despite that, though, she still wanted to see if her feet would fit into the old shoes.

Renée continued, “I slid my feet in [the skates] and they fit like a glove. It was one of those Cinderella slipper moments.” But guess what? When she took a closer look inside the boots, the mom received a huge surprise that completely caught her off guard. Near the top of the tongue, someone had penned their name in clear, dark ink.

After glancing at the scribbled name, Renée couldn’t believe her eyes — it was hers! Yes, in an incredible twist, these old skates were the ones she’d proudly owned as a teen, before letting them go at a flea market. What are the chances of that? To say that the teacher was shocked would be a major understatement.

“I was dumbfounded,” Renée told People. “I told [James], ‘Holy smokes, these are my skates.’ He looked at me like I was trying to pull a fast one over on him, but when he saw my name written on them he was as flabbergasted as me. I started crying and it almost felt like my whole life flashed before me.”

As for James, he shared his memories from that crazy day while talking to 23 ABC News in May 2022. He said, “When [Renée] saw her name written on the inside [of the skates], she just started tearing up. And I thought that was so cool. I feel like they could make a Disney movie out of the whole thing.”

And the connection between Renée and James didn’t end there. After he took the money for the old skates, the Halifax resident began to sort through a collection of his mom’s books. He planned to give them all away, until a certain title caught his eye. The book was called Roller Disco Dancing.

Unsurprisingly, the book made James think of Renée straightaway, so he put it to one side, thinking it would make a nice present. How sweet! But upon closer inspection, something weird came to light. As it turned out, this particular copy of Roller Disco Dancing once belonged to the Dartmouth Regional Library. Records on the cover showed a date from November 1981.

What’s so weird about that, then? Well, James soon found out that in 1981 Renée had worked at that library; it was a period which had coincided with her time at university. Speaking of which, the college had been responsible for putting the flea market together where she’d originally said goodbye to her skates. Regarding the book, the art teacher told TV show TODAY, “It was a universal coincidence of some sort.”

Back to the skates, though, and Renée didn’t waste any time in sprucing them up. Due to the state they were in, she visited a specialist store to buy some new laces and switch out the wheels. In the end, the mom walked away with a snazzy set of red replacements. After that, the hard work truly began.

Yes, following decades on the sidelines, Renée wanted to brush up on her skills once more. It wasn’t easy, though. “I’ve wiped out a few times,” she admitted to People. “But summer is here and I’m going to enjoy [the skates]. I just want to keep working on my balance and get good enough on them to where I don’t hurt myself.”

You definitely can’t fault Renée’s enthusiasm here. Anyway, as time went on, she began to reflect on everything that happened, leading to an interesting moment. Eager to post her tale online, the mom called upon her daughter to make a TikTok video. Much like her, Millie Webb also holds a keen interest in art. But no one could’ve predicted what happened next.

After the video was uploaded in the summer of 2022, Renée kept watch over its numbers on TikTok. “The first day it got a couple views,” she revealed. “And now it’s over a million, which is completely shocking.” In fact, at the time of writing,the clip had been watched about 2.1 million time. The post has proved to be a viral smash!

In addition to the incredible viewing figures, the video has earned more than 482,000 likes, close to 3,200 shares, and over 2,700 comments. Millie couldn’t believe it, either, noting that a chunk of the positive reactions came from people much younger than her mom. Yet they weren’t the only ones to leave kind words under the post.

Wrapping up her chat with People, Renée touched on that response. She added, “The comments have been lovely. [It] turns out there are a lot of people who are sort of in the same boat as me — a 60-year-old woman learning how to roller skate. There comes a time when each of us gets to the point where it’s now or never.”