Tourism ambassadors at a busy Vermont rest area hope you can help them reunite a lost piece of jewelry—containing what appears to be ashes of a loved one—with its rightful owner.
“I would want somebody to try to find me, too,” said Sally Parker, an employee of the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce who staffs the information center at the Williston rest area on Interstate 89 north.
On Independence Day, supervisor Matt Borden found a necklace with a broken clasp on the floor of the information center. A silver heart and a miniature urn hang on the necklace.
The rest area team members say the urn holds a tiny vial of ashes—presumably of one of the mystery owner’s loved ones.
“Somebody in this world is missing that,” Borden said of the meaningful jewelry.
Parker took the find to Facebook, racking up thousands of shares by Monday.
Because Vermont is such a popular place for travelers, especially on a holiday weekend, Parker said she knows the urn’s rightful home could be anywhere across New England, the Montreal area, or far beyond that.
“You just never know where they came from,” Parker said of the visitors to the rest area.
More than 1,200 people came through the information center on the Fourth of July, Borden noted.
The heart charm does have a faint inscription on it, which whoever lost the ashes will have to identify to get them back, Parker said.
The rest area’s optimistic that word of mouth and the reach of social media will land the ashes back where they belong.
If the jewelry and ashes belong to you or a loved one, you can call the visitor center at 802-879-2350, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week to work out how to reconnect with them.
