Reminds me of the work I did @ my wife's grandma's 1950's era house prior to replacing the overloaded fusebox (see pics if you want).
About 6 months earlier, we "surprised" Grandma by buying new paint, outlets & switches; also light fixtures and plates in a bright brass finish. Started removing the old fixtures and found wood screws instead of machine screws... (BS alarm starts buzzing).
Dropped fixture, found ceiling, NM cable poking through a 1/2" hole and no box.
(To a Chicago conduit born and bred boy like myself, I was, to put it mildly, a bit surprised...)
Wound up installing the "winged" NM retro ceiling boxes throughout most of the house.
