Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Photos of late daughter back in mom's hands
TORONTO -- Teresa Solta has a new routine. Every Sunday, at exactly 7 p.m. she plans to back up everything on her laptop.
Especially the photographs.
The Winnipeg woman is breathing a huge sigh of relief after recovering irreplaceable family photos from a laptop that was stolen and erased this month.
And if her luck holds out, she might retrieve even more pictures of the daughter she lost to cancer just two months ago.
"I know they're just pictures but on the other hand they're so tied to my heart," she said.
Solta's 17-year-old daughter Marisa ended a nine-year battle with rare form of spinal cord cancer in March.
An old laptop, which had been ferried between home and hospital, held all the pictures Solta had snapped of her child over the last three years.
When the device was snatched from a Toronto health-care centre last week, Solta felt the wrenching pain of losing her daughter all over again.
"It really hurt, believe me," said the soft-spoken Manitoba native, who is staying at the Princess Margaret Hospital Lodge as her father receives treatment.
Police recovered the laptop on Thursday after arresting Bradley Warford, of Barrie, Ont. The 35-year-old was wanted on charges of break and enter and breach of parole.
But Solta's relief was short-lived after she learned her hard drive, and consequently her precious photographs, had been erased.
"It was like we went one step forward, one step backwards," Solta said. "It was devastating."
Solta's emotional roller-coaster of a week took another sharp turn the next day when a stranger phoned her with an offer to help.
Torontonian John Riddell, who works for On Track Data recovery, was so struck by Solta's tale that he felt compelled to help.
"That's why I reacted so quickly," said Riddell, who is an expert at retrieving data.
"I wanted to make sure nothing else was done to the computer to get a better success rate."
After working on the old laptop for 18 hours, Riddell and a group of engineers managed to recover about 1,500 of Solta's visual treasures on Friday. They are still trying for more.
"I'm hoping to have something for Teresa before she leaves on Thursday, or any time sooner so we don't have to keep her hanging."
To top it all, Dell Canada, which had offices in the same building as Riddell, heard Solta's story and gave her a new laptop to put her pictures on.
Solta said she's been bowled over by the kindness of strangers such as Riddell, who've heard her story and done whatever they could to help.
"It really is overwhelming, in a very good way," she said. "I really didn't think that it would matter to anyone else."
Solta added she never imagined a big city like Toronto could offer such warmth and kindness to an out-of-towner.
"If it weren't for the public and the media and the police I would not have got it back," she said. "I really can't say thank-you enough."
-- The Canadian Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 16, 2010 A9
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