Viral Facebook post reunites New Orleans family with lost heirloom after 7 years
A woman found the gold cross in a Sam’s Club parking lot in 2018. This week, a viral Facebook post brought it home to its family.
NEW ORLEANS — For seven years, a couple wondered what happened to a family heirloom they assumed was lost forever. Thanks to the good deeds of several people, social media, and a little bit of luck, they are now reunited with it.
In 2018, Rita Shelling said she spotted a box on the ground in the parking lot of a Sam’s Club. It said Aucoin Hart. Inside was a gold cross-shaped medal on a long chain.
“It was COVID, I put it on the shelf, and pretty much forgot about it, honestly,” said Shelling.
But she did not forget her mission to find the medal’s owner. Their name was not on the box, but inside was a card with the name of Sales Associate Candice Patterson.
When Shelling walked into Aucoin Hart with a photo of the medal this past week, Patterson was still working there.
“It looked super familiar to me, but it felt like forever ago since the last time I saw it,” Patterson said.
She could not remember who the medal belonged to, and the store did not have a record of its owner. This past weekend, she posted the story on Facebook, hoping it would ring a bell for someone.
“I thought maybe the local community would put a couple of little posts out there, maybe someone would see the story,” she said. It reached many more people than she expected, racking up almost a thousand shares in three days.
Then, the post found its target. A woman saw it and remembered that her daughter’s mother-in-law had lost a valuable family heirloom in the parking lot of a Sam’s Club.
They called her, and within days, Gerry and Phil Brisset were walking through the doors of Aucoin Hart to identify the photo of their medal.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said Gerry Brisset. “It’s a miracle, it’s got to be a miracle.”
On Wednesday, Shelling met with the Brissets at Aucoin Hart to return the medal. They all embraced, and the Brissets thanked her for keeping the heirloom safe.
Gerry Brisset explained that she had given Phil the medal more than 50 years ago before they married. They had planned to give it to their grandson Jordan at his confirmation. When the date was approaching, they took the medal to Aucoin Hart to get it polished, then realized later in the day that they had dropped it at a stop at Sam’s Club.
“I was devastated,” said Brisset, “every time we’d go in Sam’s I’d think of it.”
They brought Jordan along on Wednesday. Patterson and Shelling watched with them, and he was able to put the medal on for the first time. He hugged Shelling and thanked her for returning it.
“That he’s so appreciative does me all the good in the world,” said Shelling.
By coincidence, Aucoin Hart is also her longtime jeweler. While she was there, the store surprised her with a gift card as a thank you for helping to find the medal’s owners.
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