A woman in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is smiling again after a cherished family heirloom was returned to her on Thursday.
When a tornado ripped through the area on April 12, Beulah Lockmiller’s home and almost everything inside it was severely damaged, according to Fox Carolina.
Prior to the storm, she kept a military quilt honoring her late husband, Larry, folded inside a dresser drawer that was a tribute to his nearly 30 years of service in the Army National Guard.
The quilt consisted of his patches, places he traveled during his service, and pictures arranged around a poem he wrote while deployed to Saudi Arabia, according to granddaughter Loren Lockmiller.
Following the tornado, Beulah was devastated to find that the quilt had been lost.
“She immediately noticed that the dresser that had the quilt in it was missing. We just thought it was gone, because we knew there were pieces of the elementary school here. So, we just couldn’t imagine where this would’ve flown off to,” Loren explained.
A local reporter saw their plea for help in finding it online and remembered snapping a photo of the quilt as it lay among the debris. But by the time they got to the site, it was gone.
However, the family continued their quest by sharing the photo on social media.
To their surprise, a young man named Aaron Casillas reached out and said he found it while cleaning up with a church group across the street from Beulah’s home.
Thursday, he reunited the family with their cherished quilt.
“(My grandmother) was very, very, very emotional, because losing my grandfather was losing part of herself, so ever since he passed she has just been hurt … losing another part of him and getting it back was bittersweet,” said Loren.
Casillas, who wants to join the Army someday, refused to take the $200 reward the family offered. Instead, the money will be used to make a military quilt for him.
“He may be young, but definitely a hero. We’re definitely thankful that it’s back,” said family friend Amy Powers.