Woman walking past antique store thought she saw her mom's wedding photo — she 'screamed out loud' when she took a closer look
Special memories and belongings like pictures from the wedding day hold extreme importance in almost everyone’s life. Serving the purpose of a memory, evidence and a moment captured to pass on to generations, these are carefully stored by families and retained for decades. Unfortunately, a Colorado woman, Jane Fine Foster, lost her parents’ vintage wedding pictures when they were removed from their storage facility after missing a payment, per Inside Edition. Fearing that the family’s masterpiece was now gone from their possession, Foster was stunned to spot something hopeful in an antique shop on a random day.
Many people lose things every day. It could range from anything common like phones, wallets or belongings to important items like documents, ID, jewelry and so on. Around 6.3% of Americans lose important documents, per Life 360. Undoubtedly, things like wedding documents and pictures have often been one of them. Foster had been cherishing her parents’ wedding pictures from 1948 throughout her life until they vanished in 2003. Her mom passed away in 2013, and it was one of the most precious memories she had of her mother. “All my life, we saw this wedding picture on the wall in my home,” she said.
Unfortunately, when the items were put into a storage facility and the family missed a locker payment, they were auctioned off. After the wedding pictures were auctioned off, Foster spent 14 years looking for them in vain. "All of our family treasures, gone. I made 40 or 50 phone calls trying to track down something, and they were all dead ends," she recalled.
Despite not having seen the pictures in over a decade, she remembered exactly what the pictures looked like. Having seen them throughout her life, the image had already been imprinted in her heart and mind. One random day, as she was passing by "A Robin's Nest of Antiques" (@arobinsnestantiques), she came across something familiar in the window. Her eyes were glued to the pictures in the display and Foster wondered whether her 14-year-long search had finally found closure. “I remember just clutching my chest and I just said, ‘Oh my gosh — that's my long-lost mother,'" she recounted.
Unsure how to react and at a loss for words, Foster stood outside for a couple of seconds, trying to gather her thoughts and accept what she had just seen. "I stood there and I blinked and I blinked,” she remarked. She thought she was “seeing things,” but immediately got herself together and realized that it was indeed her mother’s pictures. “I absolutely just screamed out loud — I know I just jumped. Jumped out of my skin and screamed out loud,” Foster exclaimed.
Foster decided to go in and retrieve the images, but little did she know that there was an even more profound surprise waiting for her. She spoke to the owner, who purchased the pictures and realized that he had also purchased a wedding gown along with the pictures. “She touched this fabric, and I can touch it now and think of her,” Foster noted. “This is a symbol, a message from her that she is okay,” she said.