GILBERT, Ariz. — After ten years and thousands of miles, a family keepsake once thought lost forever has returned to its owner in Gilbert.
MaryAnne Taylor Homer was out on Saguaro Lake in 2012 with her fiancée and soon-to-be second husband, Jeff Homer. She was wearing a very special necklace that day, one she had worn nearly every day since her first husband, John Taylor passed away in 2007.
“He died very suddenly and unexpectedly,” MaryAnne said. “The necklace had his thumbprint on the front and his name, John, along with his birth year and death year on the back.”
MaryAnne seldom took the necklace off, though she did plan to let Jeff take it off once he became her husband. But that day at Saguaro Lake, she was worried she’d lose the necklace, so she took it off and gave it to Jeff, who put it in a sealed pocket for safekeeping.
“I took it off because I didn’t want it to end up at the bottom of Saguaro Lake,” MaryAnne said.
At the end of the day, the necklace was nowhere to be found.
“We tore the boat apart looking for it,” MaryAnne said. She said she and Jeff came back the next day as well and looked all over the boat ramp again, but they never found the necklace. “I was hurt, distraught, and Jeff was pretty much the same,” MaryAnne said.
Not too long after, Jordan Curtis was at the lake with her family. She found the necklace, but she had no idea to whom it belonged, and she had no way of knowing when it had even been dropped.
“I knew it was special to someone,” Jordan told 12 News in January. “I didn’t just want to throw it away.”
Jordan and her family moved to North Carolina, but she kept the necklace. She even had it ten years later when she came back to Arizona to attend Northern Arizona University. Her return to Arizona and the increased use of social media over the intervening ten years gave her the idea to finally try and find the necklace’s owner, who she correctly assumed still lived in Arizona.
“I was going through my jewelry box a few days after New Year’s, and I was like ‘That’s it. I’m doing it this year.’”
Jordan made a social media post, which was shared hundreds of times, and then she spoke to 12 News reporter Erica Stapleton for a story that aired in early January. The story eventually made its way to MaryAnne who was flabbergasted.
“I was just,” MaryAnne stopped mid-sentence with her mouth wide, “my mouth just hung open.”
After a few social media posts, MaryAnne was able to confirm that the necklace was hers, and she and Jordan arranged to meet.
“It’s time,” MaryAnne said with tears in her eyes before the meeting. “I’m excited.”
Jordan knocked on the door, and the two hugged and Jordan handed over the necklace.
“It’s going to need a wash,” Jordan said. “It’s a little dirty.”
MaryAnne presented Jordan with a list she had typed up, listing all of the unlikely steps that had to happen for the necklace to find its way back to her.
“Number two: Jordan had to find the necklace,” part of the list reads. “Number six: we had to make the connection.”
The list ends with gratitude from MaryAnne to Jordan.
“I am so very happy and grateful for the kind and tender care given by Jordan. She’s exceptional.”
MaryAnne read the list aloud, and her voice broke at the end. She then presented Jordan with a gift: a charm bracelet.
“All of the ladies in my family have one," MaryAnne told Jordan. “So I’ve claimed you.”
MaryAnne married Jeff Homer in 2012 and says she won’t wear her late husband’s necklace anymore, but it’s still very important to her that it has made its way back after all of these years.
“It’s closure,” MaryAnne said through tears. “It’s having something that was significant back again.”
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