Lost and Found

by Miep O’Brien
New Mexico, USA

Lost and found


Twenty-five years ago, I went traveling with my first boyfriend, “John”, traveling light. His parents were kind enough to store some papers and photos for me, and off we went. Several years later, we returned to Los Angeles separately. We kept in touch, but our relationship was over.

By the early 90s, John had left Los Angeles and was out of my life — except for the boxes. I had asked about them, but he said he couldn’t find them. I figured they’d be returned to me sooner or later.

Then I got a call. I’d just moved, suffered some losses, and here was John on the phone. He was having problems too, and would like to be rescued. It was bad timing; I was having enough trouble just trying to rescue myself.

“Sorry, I can’t help,” I said. That was the last time we ever spoke.

Several months later I moved back to my parent’s house to try to get things together. I got another phone call, this time from a stranger who introduced himself as Hector.

Hector had been hired by the landlady to clean out the last house John had lived in. He’d been looking for me for a long time, tracking me down from notes and numbers. Amidst the mess inside the house, this man had found my papers and photos. When he found the photos, he thought, “Surely these are important? Surely whoever owned these didn’t want them thrown away.”

He wished to send me back my irreplaceable family photographs, some going back for many decades. He wouldn’t let me pay him for anything. I got the photos back in the mail the next week.

The week after that, I was bicycling down the street and saw a manila envelope lying in the middle of it. “Photos Enclosed!” it was marked. “Do Not Bend!” It was already stamped. I was only too happy to get this package back on its way.

I bicycle everywhere and find things regularly. Sometimes just pennies, sometimes stray hand tools. Sometimes a checkbook, driver’s license, or something with an address.

If there’s a phone number, I call it. If there’s a local address, I go there. Otherwise, I mail these stray things to the address on them and hope for the best.

I get some gruff acknowledgments and some suspicious looks. One lady picked up her checkbook around Christmas and merrily gave me five bucks and a bag full of sugar cookies. I delivered one ID that had been dropped down the street from a bar to a head-shaking bartender.

Things get lost. People get lost. I can’t bring back lost people, but I can bring back small things to strangers — like a stranger once did for me.

Originally published as HeroicStories #828 on June 2, 2011
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3 thoughts on “Lost and Found”

  1. What an awesome mission! You certainly fit my definition of heroic acts. Thanks for sharing your experience and how you responded to its lesson.

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  2. A fe× years ago I was contacted by someone I done business with. She and her husband had purchased something at an auction that referenced an organization I’m involved with; would I like the material? I called another–more senior–member and told him about the find. He told me to get it. The item that was found wa a nearly-complete photo-biography of a deceaded member’s time in the army during World War 2. I offered to re-pay the people who had bought it, but they refused on the grounds that it was important to our organization; it was their pleasure to return the material to us.

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