From Toronto comes a lovely story about lost and found, and how this nearly universal feature of Western society can bring out the best in people.

Dmitry Bondarenko, a Toronto-based artist and lecturer, had spent 10 years filling up a 5×7 black sketchbook of paintings in acrylic and gouache, but lost it while cycling through his adopted city of Leslieville.

Bondarenko and his parents immigrated to Canada from the USSR, and the sketchbook contained some of that memory, including still-life paintings of objects belonging to his Russian great-grandfather in the Red Army.

The weight of its absence was felt immediately, and Bondarenko set about trying to find it. He retraced his steps, put up more than 70 flyers on telephone poles and street lamps, and checked with park services in the park he had cycled through.

Eventually he turned to social media, writing in a Facebook post that normally "I'd just let it go, but this book was different. Some losses and mistakes simply hurt more than others, and I need to give finding this book a try."

Two days later, the post was shared onto a FB group called "I Am A Leslievillain" where it reached a man who had found the sketchbook on the trail.

It didn't sit well, the Toronto Star reported, in the home of Chris Ellam, 75. One glance through its paint-bound pages was enough to clue him in on the book's significance to someone. But there was no name, no phone number or address, and nothing in the numerous artworks that gave Ellam any idea who it might belong to.

He had considered hanging it from a tree near to where he found it, but wanted more to ensure it wasn't damaged by the rain. Fortunately after two days he saw the Facebook post, and through a relay of several people was able to get in touch and schedule a meet-up with Bondarenko.

"And then I lectured him like an old man," Ellam told the Star. "I told him, 'Put your name and number in it!'"

The Russian-Canadian tried and failed to present Ellam with a reward, and said it was a very humbling experience, a welcome act of goodwill in difficult times.

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