'It Was Meant To Be': Woman Reunites Family With Pendant Lost On Rehoboth Beach With Help Of Social Media
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (CBS) -- A vacation down the shore turned into a labor of love for a Brooklyn
woman. She found a lost pendant on Rehoboth Beach then worked tirelessly to find the owner.
"The world needs some happiness now," Thomas Lee said.
This story of a son and his mother provides just that.
"My brother and I were walking on the beach in Rehoboth," said Rachel Kahan, who found the pendant.
Miles of shoreline, thousands of people and out of nowhere one small pendant twinkling from the sunlight between the grains of sand caught their attention.
"I looked at the woman's face and said this is someone's mom, this is someone's grandmom and someone misses this," Kahan said.
Her instincts were absolutely correct. The pendant with the photo of Joyce Harley Gwyn, who suddenly passed in 2019, went missing while Thomas Lee, his wife Atiya, and their family were vacationing. It had been a tough two weeks for them both.
"I looked in her car, my car, in the basement, in the bedroom, in the shoes. I was just a wreck, upset, I was a mess. I was about to go buy another one, I said let's wait. She's gonna pop up somewhere," Thomas Lee said.
She certainly did, on social media. Kahan, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, and was vacationing at the Delaware beaches, felt the need to create a massive social media campaign.
The photo and storyline was shared and shared and shared so much that Atiya came across it while in the waiting room for a scheduled doctor's appointment in Dover, Delaware, where she and Thomas live.
"So when I opened my Facebook, my mother-in-law's face popped up and I was like, 'OK, wait a minute.' And I immediately started shaking and told the doctor, 'I can't stay, I have to leave,'" Atiya said.
Various media outlets eventually helped to connect them.
"It went in the mail this morning, it's like super insured, a tracking code on it," Kahan said.
And just like moms do, Joyce, who Thomas told us was a very spiritual woman, tracked down her son.
"There was something that happened there between us finding it and all the people helping to get the word out. It all really came together in a way that I think was meant to be," Kahan said.
"It's just really emotional. I appreciate you Rachel so much," Thomas said.
Thomas should receive the pendant sometime this weekend and the three of them hope to meet in person in Rehoboth or in Brooklyn in the very near future.