After tragically losing some of her familyโs most valuable belongings, Jane Fine Foster has now been reunited with some of the most precious ones thanks to a stroke of luck and the kindness of a stranger.
While out shopping in her hometown of Grand Junction, Colorado, Foster passed by the window of an antique store. She wasnโt looking to buy anything from the store, but there was a face in the window that caught her eye.
It was her motherโs.
Staring back at her from the window of A Robinโs Nest antique store was a photo of Fosterโs mother on her wedding day in 1948.
Foster could not believe what she was seeing.
โTo say I was shocked, stunned, near paralyzed is an understatement,โ Foster told KKCO News. โI actually screamed out loud. โฆ I just kept blinking and looking again, like, โCan that be? Of course, it can be. It was my mom.โโ
Fosterโs mother had passed away four years ago, but the series of wedding photos that she stumbled upon had been gone much longer.
About 12 years ago, after her father died, a lot of Fosterโs familyโs belongings were put into a storage unit in Arizona. Sadly, the photos, along with many of the familyโs other irreplaceable items, were auctioned off after Fosterโs mother missed a payment on the unit.
The storage company didnโt even tell the Fosters what had happened. It wasnโt until four months later that they learned they had lost their belongings. Foster had tried to recover the items with the most sentimental value, but a lot of her leads went cold and gave up hope.
Thatโs why she could barely believe her eyes when she saw the photos at the shop. How they made their way from Arizona to Colorado is still a mystery.
Foster was just happy finding the photos, but the shopโs owner, Shane Allerheiligen, had one more surprise for her.
In the basement of the shop, Allerheiligen had Fosterโs motherโs wedding dress.
Now Foster was really stunned!
Allerheiligen brought up the dress, still in itโs original box and with a newspaper dated June 22, 1948โjust two days after her parentsโ wedding.
Foster knew she couldnโt risk losing the precious sentimental items again. She asked how much the dress would be, but the shop owner refused to take her money.
โThere is no price,โ he told Foster. โItโs made its way back to you. Itโs home.โ
We still canโt believe that after more than a decade, Foster has finally been reunited with the heirlooms she thought she would never see again.
While this is in great part due to an incredible stroke of luck and the kindness of strangers, Foster also believes her late mother played a role in the reunion.
โThis is a message to us that she is still thinking about us,โ she said, โand watching over us.โ
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[Source: Yahoo ]
