This Woman Never Expected To Find Something Inside A $2 Thrift Store Ornament
The holiday season brings with it times of joy, laughter, and celebration. It's a time when families can get together to reflect on the past year, exchange gifts, and enjoy time together. It's also a time known to stir up a miracle or two. That's exactly what happened for a woman from Massachusetts who found something unexpected in a local thrift store.
She bought what she thought was a normal ornament, but it turned out to be so much more.
The $2 Ornament Caught Her Eye
This is Priscilla Bailey, a woman who was living in Plymouth, Massachusetts when she found an ornament that caught her eye at a local thrift store. She noticed that the ornament was being sold for the low, low price of two American dollars. Priscilla thought that was a pretty good deal, so she decided to buy the ornament right there and then.
It wasn't until she got it home that she noticed that there was something unusual about it.
Something Strange Inside
Priscilla had been shopping at that thrift store before. She liked thrift shopping because she would almost always find unique, beautiful items for a fraction of the price that they would be in a normal retail store. She would often pop into thrift stores in her area whenever she was out and about running errands.
Even though Priscilla was a veteran thrift shopper, she had no idea that she had stumbled across something really special.
How She Found Her Ornament
The ornament that Priscilla bought was just sitting on a thrift store shelf alongside other blown glass items that were for sale.
Priscilla really likes glass ornaments and this particular ornament was in her favorite color— blue.
She Knew It Would Fit Right In
When Priscilla picked up the item, she noticed the price tag stuck to the bottom of it that indicated that the ornament would only cost her $2.
Priscilla jumped at the chance to own the gorgeous ornament for such a low price. She knew the perfect place for it too; hanging in the window.
But Was The Price Too Low?
Thrift stores are known to have very good prices, but $2 for a blown glass ornament seems like a very low price even for a thrift store. What was the catch? Priscilla inspected the ornament to see if there was anything wrong with it, but as far as she could tell, it seemed perfectly fine.
It also had quite a bit of weight to it, made with care and plenty of glass so it wasn't brittle or extremely fragile.
Taking Her Treasure Home
When Priscilla got home with her new ornament, she unwrapped her found treasure and started to examine it more closely.
Taking a closer look at the metalwork, Priscilla wondered if the design was angels or something else. There must be a story to this piece. All previously owned items come with such great stories. Priscilla held the item in her hands, flipped it around, and admired the blue glass. it really was a beautiful and enchanting piece.
Heavier Than She Expected
While Priscilla was holding the ornament in her hands, she noticed that it was heavier than she expected it to be. She was no ornament expert, but she had held a fair amount of glass ornaments in her life. She could tell that this particular ornament had a bit more weight to it.
Priscilla ignored the surprising heaviness of the ornament fo the time being and decided to display her find in her kitchen. It wasn't until later, when her daughter came over, that she realized she had overlooked an important detail.
Her Daughter's Discovery
This is a photo of Priscilla's daughter, Kat. Kat also loved blown glass ornaments, so she was excited when her mother showed her the ornament she had found at the thrift store. Kat loved blown glass so much that she dreamed of opening her own blown glass store in Massachusetts.
Priscilla didn't mention the strange weight of the ornament to Kat, but even so, Kat noticed that there was something strange about this particular glass ornament.
What Was Different About It?
Kat thought that the heart-shaped ornament was absolutely beautiful. She gently took the ornament off the wall to take a closer look. She too, noticed that it was heavier than she expected. She mentioned this observation to her mother, who admitted that she also thought that the ornament was abnormally heavy.
Kat had an idea. She went to find a flashlight so that she could see if there was anything inside the ornament. That light would soon reveal something incredible.
What Was Inside?
Priscilla thought that using a flashlight to look inside of the ornament was an excellent idea. When they first shone the flashlight through the ornament, they didn't see anything unusual.
But then, they saw that there was something inside the ornament that was moving around.
A Hidden Compartment
Using the light, Priscilla and Kat discovered that there were actually two secret compartments inside the ornament.
Something was moving in the smaller compartment. If you look closely you can see where the contents inside was piling up against the walls of the ornament. Priscilla desperately wanted to know what was inside.
Reaching Out For Help
Priscilla and Kat decided that they needed an expert to help them get to the bottom of this mystery. Priscilla decided to call the local authorities and let them inspect her item. Maybe whatever was inside was dangerous or illegal.
Priscilla also called the Boston Globe and invited news reporters over to her house to see what they thought about the mysterious two-dollar thrift store ornament. Even though Priscilla didn't know what was inside the ornament yet, she had a feeling it was going to be interesting.
Not An Ordinary Ornament
The news reporters showed up at Priscilla's house first, and she told them everything that she knew about it. Sitting around her kitchen table, Priscilla told the reporters, "Right now, it's hanging up there when I do my dishes. I sometimes stare at it."
Not knowing what to expect, the reporters were just as intrigued as Priscilla when she handed over the ornament for them to inspect themselves. It was immediately clear that this held much more meaning than a simple Christmas tree ornament.
Something Powdery, Perhaps?
Then, Priscilla and Kat showed the reporters how they noticed that there were two hidden compartments inside of the glass ornament. As they had before, Priscilla held up the ornament while Kat shined a light on it, revealing the contents inside.
Kat explained to the reporters what she thought it was. "I said to her, 'it looks like it's ashes, Mom.'" But even if it were, the mystery remains as to whose they were, and how they ended up at a thrift store.
What If It Was Ashes?
There was no doubt that the ornament was beautiful. And if they contained ashes inside, it would make sense why it was so carefully made with stunning detail. But the two women had also been shaking the ornament, not knowing it was ashes inside.
They wondered if they were disrespecting the ashes, or even if she wanted this in her home if they were in fact ashes of someone's relative.
What To Do
At first, she was weirded out by the concept that she had someone else's ashes in her home, and that she had been handling the ornament that contained them so many times.
That was a bit unsettling. But she had come this far in her research.
Priscilla Decided She Had To Do Something
But thinking about it further, she had empathy for the person whose ashes they were, and the family members that would want to hold onto such a precious item.
How did it end up at the thrift store? Priscilla knew that she had to do something about it.
Giving It Back To Its Rightful Owner
Priscilla decided that she would do whatever she could in order to find the proper person to hand off the ornament to.
he was hoping that the news media could help her find the relatives who mistakenly gave the item away to the thrift store. If not, she had to find another way.
Leaving No Stone Unturned, She Even Contacted The Police
She told the reporters, "It's beautiful. It must have a story. So that's my goal: to find out where and who this belongs to."
She had also notified the police, but still, she didn't feel like she was any closer to finding any answers.
Getting The Word Out
After the news media left her Plymouth home, Priscilla and Kat decided that they should hold onto the glass ornament until they figured out who to return it to. They hoped that the news story would pick up steam, and someone would know who to return it to.
The women also had another idea: share the story on Facebook and see if they could reach anyone who might know something through social media.
Using Social Media
Along with a close-up photo of the blue glass ornament, Kat shared the story of how she and her mother ended up with it. She shared, "It breaks my heart that this was tossed away and just sitting on a shelf at Savers for $2."
She asked for anyone who might know anything about it to get a hold of her so that the mother and daughter could properly return it in safe care.
Hope That The Original Owner Could Still Be Near
Priscilla had also contacted the store she purchased it from, Savers, and let them know of her find.
The store's manager said that the majority of their donations were from residents in the area, so there was a good chance whoever donated the ornament lived around Plymouth.
Another Special Ornament
So far the post had been making its rounds on Facebook, with many people following the mysterious story. That's when a local woman named Connie Whiteman Slate commented on Kat's post,
"Please let me know what you find out as I have one also. Found mine at a thrift shop too! It's heavy in weight."
Could There Be Two?
The conversation on the Facebook post continued, as someone else commented that she had one too. A woman replied that she had found a similar ornament at a thrift store, but in the Pacific Northwest.
She described it, "Mine was iridescent and heart-shaped like this one, but much less ornament and more suncatcher-like."
Could There Be A Geological Answer?
Then, she included some information about the contents of the ornament that the women hadn't heard before. She said, "It was made from the ash of Mt. Saint Helen."
Could Priscilla and Kat have found their answer?
The Eruption Of Saint Helen
On March 27, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington, United States. The eruption has often been declared the most disastrous volcanic eruption in U.S. history.
The blast rocked the area and an eruption column rose 80,000 feet into the atmosphere and dumped ash in 11 U.S. states and even as far as Canada. It's possible the ash was collected from that blast, but without crr
The Search Continues
The woman who knew the origins of the ashes within her ornament replied back, "This could also explain what appears to be ashes enclosed within... could be a possibility."
All this time, Priscilla and Kat believed that the ornament held a person's ashes like an urn. They hadn't considered the possibility that the ashes originated from something else. The two women didn't receive a confirmed answer, but with the Facebook post still going viral, there's a chance the truth will reveal itself.
Follow our brand for more content like this
