Locket

Woman Stunned to See Grandparent’s Wartime Locket Online After Stranger Buys it in Thrift Shop to Find Owner 

Kelly Brown sat at her home last week in shock: staring at what appeared to be a black-and-white photograph of her grandparents smiling out from the inside of a locket; the subject of a post on Facebook. 

The post’s author, Alison Anne, said she had found and bought the locket at a thrift shop after recognizing the man in the photo and wanted to know if anyone had a clue as to its original owner; a simple, selfless act that against all odds, paid off. 

“Little lost for words,” Brown said, remembering the instant she realized it was her grandparents in the locket. “Just it’s such a surreal, cool moment. The power of social media doing something good.” 

Going back a few months, a branch of re-Source Thrift Shop in Barrie received a donation of things from a woman whose grandmother who passed away not long before. Inside were several jewelry boxes where the locket was eventually found before being put up for sale. 

That’s where the locket resurfaced, but according to Brown, it disappeared long before that—perhaps as early as the year 2000 when during a teenager-organized house party, some of her grandfather’s medals and personal items were allegedly stolen. 

In any case, the locket had a picture of Bill Mitchell, Brown’s grandfather who served as a Warrant Officer 2nd Class in the RCAF during WWII, winning the Burma Star and the 1939–45 War Medal. 

Anne and Brown decided after connecting to meet at the local Royal Canadian Legion post to reunite the locket with its rightful owner and reminisce about family, war, history, and fortune. 

“I’m still mesmerized. I’m still in shock. Yeah. I’m like, is this for real? I had to ask people, are these my grandparents? And then I had the same pictures in my old photo albums, and I’m just. I’m in awe,” shared Brown.