Old graffiti at Downhome Shoppe tells a St. John's love story

A family visited the Downhome Shoppe in St. John's over the weekend, but not to check out any merchandise. They were there to look at old graffiti.

Earlier this month, CBC News put out a call trying to identify people who wrote their names on the walls of the building in the 1940s and 50s.

• Can you identify these old signatures from the Downhome Shoppe?
• Graffiti in the Downhome Shoppe shows history of St. John's visitors

Mike Ryan, a former Newfoundlander and Labradorian now living in Milton, Ont., recognized the names as his former neighbours: Pat and Mercedes Hollohan.

Mercedes Hollohan, 82, was shocked to find out she had signed her name, along with her late husband's, on the wall more than half a century ago.

"I couldn't believe it. I said, 'My God, and I'm really mad and disappointed that I can't remember clearly enough'," she said.

Hollohan made the visit with two of her children, Yvonne and Keith, exactly 61 years after she first wrote her name on the wall.

Pat was the love of my life and that was it.- Mercedes Hollohan

"I can't believe it, I wrote my name all over the place here," she said. "I should own the store."

In those days, Hollohan worked at The Arcade store on Water Street and Pat worked as a truck driver, delivering magazines to shops around town.

Stirring up memories

For Hollohan, it was an emotional trip that had her reminiscing about how she met her husband.

The two briefly met on a summer afternoon in 1954 when Hollohan visited Bannerman Park with her friend.

"Sitting down by the tree were these two guys playing the guitar and singing and a nice crowd there, so that's when I first saw him," Hollohan.

If it wasn't love at first sight, it was pretty close.

Hollohan walked to work every day that summer from her family home on Southside Road and it wasn't long after their first brief encounter that she started noticing Pat all around town.

"Every time I used to walk down about two or three or four days in a row, I see this red van driving down Water Street and I wouldn't look right over, just kind of slide over, just look over a little bit," she said.

"I didn't want him to know that I was looking at the van."

Despite her best efforts, on a rainy St. John's day, Pat eventually noticed her too.

"It was pouring out of the heavens like crazy, and I was walking down, oh my, anyways he hauls right in by me," said Hollohan.

"He picked me up and usually I would never do that, but it was [such] heavy rain, I took a chance."

Only a few days after that encounter, Pat's friend phoned Hollohan at her family home asking if she would like to go on a date with Pat. She said yes.

Four months later, the two were engaged.

I can't believe it, I wrote my name all over the place here.- Mercedes Hollohan

"He proposed to me in my parent's home. He wanted to ask my father and I said, 'No that's too old fashioned, you don't need to do that," she said.

"I was afraid that my father wouldn't allow me to marry him because the job he had. It was all right I suppose, but it wasn't enough for my father."

"No matter what he said I was going to be engaged to him anyway."

The two were married in 1956 and Pat became a sergeant with the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.

'Love of my life'

The couple built a life together and had seven children

"He was a wonderful marvelous husband and a wonderful father," said Mercedes.

The writing serves as a memento to Hollohan's time working at The Arcade store, and of her lasting love for her husband.

When Pat Hollohan passed away in 1989, Mercedes told her kids that she had no interest in meeting anyone else.

"Pat was the love of my life and that was it," said Hollohan.

So while it came as a wonderful surprise to find the writing on the wall, it was still a little bittersweet.

"I wish he was here to see it."

Hollohan will be making another visit to her handiwork later this summer when some of her other children come to town to see it.