Maggies Inn (2026)

06/11/2026

Well, it’s time to tell you more about the story of …

The Stranger in the Old Painting

As Richard sat quietly in the living room, listening to Elizabeth tell them what had happened to her after she left the Gaspe Coast in 1956, he held the old painting that Clara had found in Ellen’s house.

When the doorbell rang and Jenny’s dog started to bark, he accidentally dropped the painting on the floor. In walked Ellen with Mickey, who had stopped by to see his mother and grandmother. They were surprised to see Clara there, and as they got to talking about all that had happened, Richard picked up the painting and noticed that the backing was torn. Clara had already found the old letter inside and, after removing it, taped it closed.

But now he could tell that there was something else hidden inside. He carefully removed a smaller painting of a young couple sitting on a bench near the Seaside Cottages. They were holding hands and smiling. He also found a small velvet bag with a ring inside.

Suddenly, everyone stopped talking as Elizabeth got up and walked over to see what Richard had found.

No one said a word as Elizabeth put the ring on her finger and held the painting to her chest, crying, and saying that she had never stopped loving him. She was so upset that everyone left the room to give Jenny some time to help her mother come to terms with the memories of all that she had lost.

Later they returned to the living room, and Elizabeth thanked Clara and Richard for finding the old painting and bringing it to her. She said that Robert had painted them as they were on the day that he asked her to marry him. They couldn’t tell anyone at the time, so he hid the ring and the smaller painting inside the bigger one. They had made a promise that day to love each other forever.

And now holding the small painting and wearing his engagement ring, Elizabeth believed that Robert had found a way to give her back the ring as he had promised he would all those years ago.

As for Clara, she went home for Christmas and told her parents that she was going to be moving to the Gaspe Coast to open a small art gallery near the Seaside Cottages because she had found an old painting of a stranger.

The End!

05/11/2026

Well, it’s time to tell you more about the story of…

The Stranger in the Old Painting

Clara had not expected to learn that Joseph was actually Robert Harris, and that he had died so young. Ever since she found the old painting, she knew that she had to figure out who the stranger was for some reason. But she had not expected to be caught up in such a heartbreaking old love story.

Elizabeth could see that Clara was upset, so she reached out to hold her hand. She told her that a part of her heart died that day and she had never been able to love anyone else the way that she had loved Robert.

His friend Sam, who was a notary, told her that it had taken him months to bring her the news because there had been several legal challenges to manage. He also told her that Robert had been a very wealthy young man because of an inheritance from his grandmother.

Before Robert left that morning, Sam had helped him to open a bank account in Elizabeth’s name, and had deposited a large sum of money for her and the baby. And because he was going to be a father, he had asked Sam to set up a trust fund for his child.

When he died, his family fought to keep Elizabeth from getting any of their son’s money. But Sam had already notarized the legal papers in her name because that is what Robert wanted. His parents were angry and wanted nothing to do with Elizabeth or the child that they did not believe was Robert‘s.

Elizabeth said that at first she did not want his money. But Sam convinced her to take it because Robert had loved her and wanted to take care of her.

So she opened an art gallery as a tribute to Robert because she knew his dream was to help struggling artists. Eventually, it became a very successful business, and now his daughter, Jenny, owned it.

Elizabeth also told Clara that she always wished that she could have had the painting Robert made for her that summer.

Well, that is all I can tell you for today but if you come back tomorrow, I will tell you how the story ends because that would be for sure a very good thing.

04/11/2026

Well, it’s time to tell you more about the story of…

The Stranger in the Old Painting

Looking at the money in the satchel, Elizabeth told them how she had struggled financially as a young, unmarried woman in the city with a newborn baby. She had waited for Robert to come and get her because he had promised he would. But he didn’t.

Somehow, she managed to survive with the help of a woman who lived in the boarding house where she was staying. She had worked right up until she had the baby and went back to work two weeks later. She couldn’t go home because she wanted to spare her family the shame of her situation.

As Clara listened, she asked her why Robert had not wanted his parents to know where he was. Elizabeth told her that Robert had come from a very wealthy family in Toronto, and his father expected him to work in their overseas shipping business.

Robert was desperate to escape his family's controlling expectations and the rigid future they had chosen for him, so he hid out on the Gaspe Coast that summer, where he met her.

When Robert found out that Elizabeth was pregnant, he was afraid that his parents would find out and try to separate them.

He left the Coast suddenly because his father had found him and left a message saying that his mother was very sick and he had to go home.

He had tried to find Elizabeth to tell her, but she had gone to visit her grandmother that weekend. When she got back, she called Robert at the Seaside Cottages, but the receptionist told her that he had checked out two days earlier and gone home because his mother was very sick.

So, she immediately left for Toronto, hoping to find him, but she never did.

A few months later, a close friend of Robert’s found Elizabeth to tell her that Robert had been killed in a terrible accident. He had breakfast with him the morning he left, and Robert told him how happy he was because he was on his way to ask the girl he loved to marry him.

Well, that is all I can tell you for today, but if you come back tomorrow, I will tell you more because to know the rest of the story would be for sure, a very good thing !

www.gaspecoaststories.ca

03/11/2026

Well, it’s time to tell you more about the story of …

Chapter 15

The Stranger in the Old Painting

Clara and Richard carefully packed the brown satchel, the painting and some old photographs from the walls of the Seaside Cottages that they thought might be Elizabeth and Joseph Harrington, and put them into Richard’s car

Together, they drove away from the Gaspe Coast with the hope of finding some answers and to give Elizabeth the old satchel and the painting that she was supposed to get 70 years ago.

When they arrived at the home of Jenny McNeil the next day, she invited them in and introduced them to her mother, Elizabeth Finn. At 89 years old, Elizabeth was a beautiful, elegant, older lady, her silver hair framing, a face that still held the gentle lines of the young girl that they had seen in the photographs at the Seaside Cottages.

Clara’s hands shook slightly as she stood before her and gently removed the protector wrapping from the old painting. Elizabeth’s eyes widen, when she saw it, and a soft gasp of breath escaped her lips as her eyes filled with tears.

She reached out with trembling hands to touch the painting and smiled as the long ago memories came back to her.

She whispered something, and then told Clara and Richard that she remembered the summer of 1956 when he had painted it for her. That summer had been the happiest time in her life because she had been so in love with Robert Harris.

She told them that they had planned to get married and live in the house that he had painted in his artwork

Robert Harris?

Clara was confused and showed her the black-and-white photographs and asked her if they were of her and Joseph Harrington?

Elizabeth looked up at her, smiled, and told her that there had never been a Joseph. Robert had used that name when he signed in to the Seaside Cottages so that his parents wouldn’t be able to find him.

Clara wondered why?

Well, that is all I can tell you for today, but if you come back tomorrow, I will tell you more because to know the rest of the story, would be for sure, a very good thing !

02/11/2026

Well it’s time to tell you more about The Stranger in the Old Painting

Chapter 14

Hoping to learn more, Richard invited Clara to go with him to visit his mother. She had spent a lot of time at the Seaside Cottages as a young girl with her father and would probably be able to answer some of their questions.

When they got there, Clara told her that she had found an old painting and was wanting to find out more about it and a woman named Elizabeth Finn.

Richard’s mother, Sandra told them that Elizabeth Finn was still alive and living in Toronto with her daughter Jenny McNeil.

When Clara heard the name, she remembered that Ellen’s boyfriend Mickey told her that he and Ellen would be visiting his mother, Jenny McNeil, in Toronto on their trip. Was it possible that Mickey was Elizabeth Finn’s grandson?

Sandra told him that she was there the day that Joseph Harrington checked out of his cottage and she remembered him giving her father a brown leather bag and asking him to keep it in a safe place, and to give it to Elizabeth next time he saw her.

When Clara asked if Joseph had left the painting, she said yes and that she had found it in his cottage after he left, so she gave it to her father. He kept it for a long time in his office, but when Joseph never returned, he hung it in the hallway of his house. He said that it was special because one of his guests had painted it.

Years after her father died, Sandra sold the house to Ellen, not knowing that the painting was a keeper of a mysterious old love story.

Clara did some research and was able to find a phone number to call Jenny. When she answered, Clara told her who she was and what she had found.

Jenny asked her a lot of questions, and then she invited Clara and Richard to go to Toronto and meet her mother.

Would Elizabeth Finn remember who the stranger was in the old painting?

Well, that is all I can tell you for today, but if you come back tomorrow, I will tell you more because to know the rest of the story would be for sure, a very good thing.

30/10/2026

Well it’s time to take a little break in the story of …

The Stranger in the Old Painting …

To wish you a Happy Halloween because that’s a very important thing to do!

According to old folklore … Halloween is the one night of the year when the ancient veil around the earth is thin enough, because of the full moon, that the good witches gather together and cast spells for the benefit of all.

But the story will continue on Monday, and you may be interested to know that Clara is going to talk to an unexpected someone who knows quite a few details about Elizabeth Finn!

Which of course, is going to lead her closer to finding out more about who the stranger is in the old painting.

Until then, may your treats be many and your tricks be few. And if a witch crosses your path, may she cast a good spell on you!🎃🧙‍♀️

29/10/2026

Chapter 13

Well it’s time to tell you more about the story of …

The Stranger in the Old Painting

For a minute, neither Clara nor Richard said anything when they saw what was inside the satchel. Then Richard looked at her in disbelief and asked why anyone would leave all that money in a bag in someone else’s safe.

Clara reached in and took out the bundles of bills secured by faded paper bands. Richard examined them carefully without taking apart the wrapped $100 bills. He estimated that there was at least $10,000 in cash.

Was it Joseph’s money?

Clara then removed two envelopes. One had Elizabeth’s name written across it, while the other contained documents from a law office in Toronto.

With trembling hands, Clara opened Elizabeth’s envelope. The letter explained that the money was for her to go to Toronto and have her baby. He intended to join her in a few weeks once he had taken care of some family business. He promised that her and the baby would be provided for, and that she must keep their plans secret until he arrived. It was signed R. H.

Clara read the letter twice. So Elizabeth had gone to Toronto to have a baby? But was it Joseph’s baby … if so, who was R.H.?

The second envelope was more puzzling. It said that a bank account had been opened in Elizabeth’s name, with money for her and the child. A lawyer named Bill Sanders had signed the document as a witness, confirming the arrangements.

Clara didn’t understand. Whoever R.H. was, he was trying to protect Elizabeth and her unborn child. Yet if all this money was for Elizabeth, what was it doing in Mr. Wilson safe? And why had she not received it? Did she ever get the money in the bank account that had been set up for her and the baby?

Clara knew that she was getting closer to the truth, but it was confusing and she still didn’t know who the stranger was in the old painting.

Well, that is all I can tell you for today, but if you come back tomorrow, I will tell you more because to know the rest of the story would be for sure, a very good thing!

28/10/2026

Well, it’s time to tell you more about the story of …

The Stranger in the Old Painting

Clara could tell that Richard knew something about the satchel, so she asked him if his grandfather had ever mentioned it. He said yes and told her that when he came back from business college, his grandfather asked him if he wanted to take over the Seaside Cottages because he wanted to retire.

Richard was happy to do so because he had spent every summer as a teenager helping his grandfather to do a bit of everything around the resort. So his grandfather gave him the keys and signed the papers to make him the legal owner.

When he first started to go through everything, he found a locked satchel in the attic safe. He asked his grandfather what it was, but was told to leave it there because he'd promised not to let anyone see what was inside until someone came and asked for it, but nobody ever did.

Richard said he had forgotten all about it until she mentioned it. He had always intended to go through the things in the attic, but never did.

But since she came looking for it, maybe it was time to unlock the safe and see what was in the old satchel. He told her to follow him, so Clara willingly went up the two flights of stairs that took them to a dark, open attic.

He turned on an old hanging ceiling light and walked towards a big metal safe and unlocked it. Clara saw yellowed papers and documents inside. But she also saw what looked like a brown leather briefcase with a lock on it.

Richard took it out and tried to open it, but he couldn’t, so he went and got a hammer from an old toolbox in the corner of the room. He hit the lock a few times to break it and was able to open the satchel.

Both Clara and Richard were shocked to see what was inside.

Well, that is all I can tell you for today, but if you come back tomorrow, I will tell you more because to know the rest of the story would be for sure, a very good thing!

www.gaspecoaststories.ca

27/10/2026

Well it’s time to tell you more about the story of …

The Stranger in the Old Painting

Clara took a picture of the photograph of the young man on the wall. It had to be the same person as the one in the painting she had found. She continued to look at all the other photographs, and then found another one with the same man standing next to a young woman. Both of them were smiling. Could that be Joseph and Elizabeth, she wondered?

Richard came back into the room carrying a tray with two mugs of tea and cinnamon rolls. As soon as she saw it, she remembered that she had not eaten breakfast that morning because she had been in such a hurry to find out more about the identity of Joseph Harrington.

Richard sat on the sofa beside her and asked her what she had seen in his grandfather‘s registers that had upset her. She told him about the stranger in the painting that she had found in the giveaway boxes at Ellen‘s house, and that she had found the name Joseph Harrington – 1956 written in faded black ink on the backing.

Then she had found an envelope with the name Elizabeth Finn hidden behind the backing. It was a letter that someone had written to Elizabeth and it said that they had done what they had promised and that the arrangements were made, but she had to keep it to herself because there were people who must never know.

Richard told her that he had seen Elizabeth Finn‘s name somewhere in his grandfather‘s papers but he couldn’t remember where. He had also seen the name Joseph Harrington years ago when he was cleaning up his grandfather‘s papers in the attic. He never paid attention to any of it because he had no reason to.

When Clara told him that she had found a note in the 1956 register about Joseph leaving a satchel in his grandfather's safe, Richard’s expression changed.

Well, that is all I can tell you for today, but if you come back tomorrow, I will tell you more because to know the rest of the story would be for sure, a very good thing!

26/10/2026

Well, it’s time to tell you more about the story of…

The Stranger in the Old Painting

Clara felt her heart beating loudly as she reread the note in the old register. What could he have left in the satchel, and why would he have left it in the care of Mr. Wilson, the cottage owner?

Was it stolen money and that is why he had hidden out in this small town that summer? Was there something in it that he wanted to give to Elizabeth when he returned?

What had he been doing during the summer that he had spent at the cottage? What was his background? What did his family do in Toronto? And would she be able to find some information about them and what had happened to Joseph? Her mind was racing as she tried to figure out the answers to her own questions.

Richard Wilson must have noticed that she looked confused, so he asked her if she was all right and if she had found something that had upset her. Without thinking, she asked him if he knew anything about a man called Joseph Harrington. Richard told her no and asked her why?

Clara looked at him and tried to make up some more lies to explain it to him, but she couldn’t. She had just met Richard and didn’t know anything about him, but she needed someone to confide in. And being that he was not much older than her and that he had trusted her enough to let her see the old registers, she asked him if he could help her with the research she was working on.

He was now the one who seemed confused. He told her he would help if he could, but that he was going to make them a cup of tea and then she could tell him what she was looking for.

He left and while waiting for him to come back, she got up and started to look at the old photographs on the wall. And then she saw one that startled her.

Well, that is all I can tell you for today but if you come back tomorrow, I will tell you more because to know the rest of the story would be for sure a very good thing!

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Maggies Inn

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