Mother reunited with missing locket containing daughter’s ashes

Reporter: Tiffany Rizzo
Published: Updated:
Lost locket
Lost locket (Credit: Matthew Grace)

Years after she lost her locket, Cathy Hamilton has it back.

A WINK News viewer found the piece of jewelry near a Lehigh Acres gas station and decided to try to find its rightful owner.

It’s what is inside the locket that is priceless for Hamilton.

“My younger daughter passed away many years ago and it’s got her ashes so I can have her close to my heart,” Hamilton said.

Her daughter Jennifer died 15 years ago.

For many years after that, Hamilton wore Jennifer’s ashes around her neck to keep her close.

Then four or five years ago, Hamilton said, the chain to the locket broke.

And her urgent search began.

“I was out here turning over blades of grass, trying to find it because I was holding open houses as a Realtor. And I just kept coming out and it just wasn’t showing up,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton never gave up hope but she did eventually give up her search and turned to prayer instead.

“I just prayed it was saved somewhere,” Hamilton said.

Her prayers were answered on Wednesday when she saw the locket on WINK News in a story about a man trying to find its owner.

Jim Phelps found the locket in a Mobil parking lot in Lehigh Acres.

“Something that’s so tiny,” Hamilton said. “It’s a miracle that somebody thought anything about it. But yeah, when I saw it, I’m like, Oh, my God.”

Now that Hamilton has the locket back her prayer is to never lose it again. She is planning on getting a new chain for it to wear around her neck once again.

“She said a little prayer over when I first gave it to her, that was really nice,” Phelps said.

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