For decades, a Eugene woman quietly built what might be the world’s largest collection of jigsaw puzzles.
Gail Wickstrom died last September. She was 80 years old. She lived alone in a light-blue home in south Eugene packed to the gills with paperbacks, CDs, DVDs, horse-themed decór and, most of all, jigsaw puzzles.
First, they filled shelves in her garage. As the collection expanded, she purchased two storage units to house the piles of puzzles. Now, they stand side-by-side in her backyard, still sheltering her treasures.
The puzzles have been under the care of Bob Kendall, Wickstrom’s friend and classmate from the South Eugene High School class of 1962, who is now trying to get his friend recognized as a Guinness World Record holder two times over…