Winnipeg store looking to connect grandmother with record that has a special meaning

A Grant Park bookstore is trying to track down a customer whose search for a record Saturday has touched their hearts.

A Winnipeg store is hoping to connect with a grandmother who went looking for a specific record but left before it was found.

April 12 marked Record Store Day, an event celebrated twice a year to recognize independent record stores. While known for books, McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location was also participating in the event, having sold records in the store for years.

“They have releases, limited editions that come out only on those days,” said Angela Torgerson, executive manager at McNally Robinson. “It’s sort of like a lottery. We order hundreds of titles, and we see what we get.”

On Saturday, there were between 30 and 35 people who were waiting to get in. Among them was a grandmother who was looking for two Rolling Stones albums. Torgerson said she was able to find one album, but not the copy of the Record Store Day exclusive “Out of Our Heads” that was released on Saturday.

While staff searched to see if they had it, Torgerson said they learned why she was buying the records.

“She told me that she was there actually on behalf of her grandson,” Torgerson said. “When I said, ‘Oh my goodness, that makes you just the best grandmother in the world,’ she sort of made a face and said that she was buying it for him to take to his grandfather, who was a long-term customer of ours, and we didn’t know that he was in palliative care.

“They had often spent Record Store Day together. He had passed on his love of music to his grandson, and it was really important to her and her grandson that he get a chance to share that with his grandfather.”

The store was unable to find “Out of Our Heads,” and the woman left after purchasing her first record. However, later that day, a copy came to McNally Robinson.

The store posted on social media to try and find her but hasn’t been able to make contact yet.

“We’re just so touched that a grandmother would go out of her way to that length to stand in line on an early, chilly morning to get this for her grandson,” Torgerson said. “So we would be really honoured and thrilled to be able to track her down to give them one more album.”

Torgerson said they’re hoping someone knows the family and will contact them to pick up the album, which is being held for them at the Grant Park location.