Ever since Angela Justice of Mathews lost her mother in 2019, she’s been aware of the value mementos and keepsakes hold for family members.
When she went to yard sales or flea markets, she began paying attention to items that looked like they might have special meaning to a loved one, and she even began volunteering for the organization Grave Finders, helping family members from out of state find a loved one’s burial site and taking pictures of the cemetery and headstone for them.
“Honoring our ancestors, and their love that lives on, has always been the reason I try to help in my own little way,” she said.
A year ago, Angela was at a yard sale in Deltaville and saw a shadow box that contained a presidential memorial certificate and a military burial flag for a man named Lacy Mitchell Ford Jr. who died in 2013. Understanding that the items had been in recognition of a man’s military service, she felt sure that there was a heartbroken family somewhere that would like to have them back. So, she paid $5 for the shadow box, which had been purchased in a storage unit sale, and went home to start searching for his family members.
Angela found an obituary online with the man’s name and the names of his four daughters. His was a military burial in Kentucky. She began searching online for contact information for the daughters but couldn’t find anything, even on social media websites. She called the funeral home that handled Mr. Ford’s funeral and asked for any records that might help her find the family, but to no avail. Several months passed, and finally Angela thought about leaving a message for family members on the online guest registry associated with the man’s obituary.
A year after she began her search, Angela finally heard from one of Ford’s daughters, Stephanie, who said one of her sisters had been in possession of their father’s military memorial items and had died. The family hadn’t known that the sister had put the items in storage, and thought they were lost forever.
Stephanie drove nearly two hours from her home in Chester to pick up the items from Angela, and they made an immediate connection.
“We laughed and cried and shared stories about our dads we missed so much,” said Angela.