An Alberta woman says her faith in humanity has been restored after two women located and returned a chest containing her mother’s ashes, which was stolen during a break-in in early July.
“We cannot praise the actions of these exemplary human beings enough,” Lois Gordon said.
Gordon’s mother, Mary Annie Myers, died in her Strathcona County home at the end of May, just days before her 91st birthday. On July 8, Myers’ ashes – along with some costume jewelry and personal mementos – were stolen from the very bedroom in which she passed.
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Because of the theft, Gordon’s family wasn’t able to honour her mother as planned, so instead, they planted a rose at a small cemetery in the country.
On Monday, while visiting the rose she planted in memory of her mother, Gordon received a hopeful message on Facebook from a woman she had never met. After a few messages with the woman, and an email from her mother’s lawyer, Gordon learned two female line locators were doing work near the Scotford Refinery – northeast of Fort Saskatchewan – when they came across documents containing her mother’s name, which were also stolen during the break-in.
The women also found some of the jewelry and two jewelry boxes, but unfortunately, Myers’ ashes and the chest were nowhere to be found.
Remaining hopeful, Gordon sent the women a picture of the chest and drove out to meet the pair.
“As we drove to meet them, they called me to say that they had found the chest, still in the green velvet bag, damp, but not broken or smashed,” Gordon said.
“My relief and gratitude were overwhelming.”
The line locators – Betsy Davis and Vicki Paquette – continued to search through the wet grass and managed to find a few more pieces of Myers’ jewelry.
Gordon said she will be “forever grateful” that the women went above and beyond to help complete strangers.
“Had these wonderful women not be observant, diligent and compassionate, we would never have recovered what was so precious to us,” Gordon said.
“Who better to have on the case? Two strong women, skilled in locating, found another strong woman.”
Gordon, her sister and their husbands went back to the site on Tuesday with metal detectors and managed to recovery more of the stolen jewelry.
Myers was a mother of four, a grandmother of seven, and a great-grandmother of 11.