It's a story that emerged with a "message in a bottle" quality, tying together ABC personality Annabel Crabb and Tasmanian artist and bookshop owner, Alexander Okenyo, in a way neither of them could have expected.
It all started in 2018, before COVID travel restrictions, when Crabb and her partner, Jeremy Storer, were travelling overseas with their three children.
While Crabb and her family were in a restaurant in Rome one night, a fellow diner approached them on his way out with his wife and handed Crabb a small sketch on a torn piece of receipt paper.
"We didn't have a long chat, he just handed over the drawing. And I was so taken by it that I sort of was focused on it and not him … so I didn't really pick up that he was Australian," Crabb said.
She said she loved the sketch so much that she made sure to put it somewhere where it wouldn't be damaged — in her stamp envelope in her wallet.
Crabb said she had thought about the sketch for years, wondering who the mysterious artist was.
There were some brief internet searches not long after she received the sketch, with no luck.
Recently, she pulled out the sketch again.
"I thought, 'I never did find out who that artist was'," she said.
"I was looking at this little drawing and remembering how much I loved it, and I sort of thought, why don't I just ask the podcast group?"
Mystery solved
Crabb posted a photo of the sketch, and one of the artist's signature, in the Facebook group for Chat10Looks3 — the podcast she hosts with fellow ABC presenter Leigh Sales.
"They are the best investigative detectives! I didn't know why I hadn't thought of it before," Crabb said.
In mere minutes, the mystery was solved. The artist was not someone from Europe — as she had originally thought — but Tasmanian artist and bookshop owner Alexander Okenyo.
'It's just so funny to see it come back four years later'
Alexander Okenyo owns the Black Swan bookshop in the southern Tasmanian town of New Norfolk.
He told ABC Radio Hobart he was shocked to discover the sketch he did during his Italian holiday in 2018 had made its way to the internet years later.
"I remember everything from that night, it was so vivid. I just remember spotting this beautiful family just doing their own thing."
When Okenyo was identified as the artist, Crabb posted the news on her Instagram page.
"I've carried it in my wallet ever since and I love it and have always wondered who he was," she wrote.
"This morning I posted the drawing in the Chat10Looks3 group and within about two minutes they identified the artist as Alexander Okenyo — an Australian!
"Hey Alexander, was this indeed you? And if so — thank you so much for this little piece of perfection which I will keep always.
"Going to Rome seems like a fever dream now. I hope you are well and that you had a great holiday in 2018."
Alexander's wife Sarah Okenyo saw the post and rushed to tell her husband that the family he had sketched in Rome all those years ago was, in fact, Annabel Crabb's.
Okenyo then started receiving messages from friends and family who had also seen the post.
"I know who Annabel is, but I had to look her up to be sure," Okenyo said.
He said he was a big fan of Crabb's work, but did not realise it was her that night.
"It's just so funny to see it come back four years later."
Okenyo said when he looked at the sketch online and saw Crabb's trademark cat-eye glasses, it all made sense.
"It was funny to see her iconic glasses — right there in the sketch."
A serendipitous moment
Okenyo posted to social media about the discovery.
"I do specifically remember how lovely your family was with each other," he posted on Instagram.
"Sarah and I were just starting our own and sitting there with her, very much in love, people gazing, watching your family chatter and interact was heart-warming.
"Also, hearing Aussie accents overseas can be very nice!"
Okenyo said the full circle moment had reminded him of the coincidences he often encountered with strangers in his home state.
"These kinds of things happen in Tasmania all the time," he said.
He said the chance encounter made his 2018 trip all the more memorable.
"The whole thing has been quite fun, I think there is something in it that reflects how lovely and full circle things can be," he said.
Crabb said the discovery excited her family and her followers on social media, and was a reminder of the joy in crossing paths with fellow Australians overseas.
As for the sketch, Crabb is hoping to preserve it long-term.
"It's still in my wallet," she said.
