Terry Ward of Nicoma Park, Oklahoma went out to his yard one day to find something very peculiar: a Bible full of mementos that he knew was not there before. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the old Bible had a name and year printed on it, "Pearl Williams, 1946."
"It rained all night, so it must have just been there for a little while because it wasn't wet," Ward said to KFOR-TV, as reported by Faithwire. "Just laying there with some screws and some bullets."
Ward, who said he found the Bible in his flower bed, went through its pages and found the name Pearl Williams and the year 1946 printed inside. He decided to call City Hall to determine if Williams lived in his town, but to no avail. The City Hall reported no record of anyone with that name residing in Nicoma Park. Determined to find the Bible's owner, Ward contacted the local police, who came up with an address listed in Del City, some 12 miles away.
Nicoma Park Police Lt. Mike Weiss responded to the inquiry by calling up the Del City Police Department, who went by the address they retrieved. Lt. Weiss revealed, "Luckily, the Bible's owner - her son - still lived at that address."
Williams' daughter, Lisa Bennett was overjoyed to be given back the Bible full of mementos as her mother passed away in October 2020. She was happy to find pieces of cherished items inside the Bible which her mother kept throughout the years.
"It was very emotional. We lost my mom in October," Bennett admitted. "So that was hard enough and now to find out that I have [her] Bible gives me part of her."
Bennett added that, "Her wedding announcement was in the Bible from where she and my dad got married. She kept different things that were very important to her."
Bennett shared that her mother was "a big part" of her life and that her death felt like she "lost a lot of her." But "finding little bits and pieces and keeping little pieces of her"-such as the Bible and the mementos kept in it-helps her "rebuild that little loss" in her heart.
Lt. Weiss felt relieved that such an important family heirloom such as a late mother's Bible was returned to its rightful owners. He told FOX 5 that this is the type of heartwarming cases or stories that "makes it nice to be a police officer."
Police said they are investigating whether other items have been missing from the Williams family's home.
An even older Bible
Similarly in Florida, Phil Handy found a 250-year-old Bible in his aunt's attic, wrapped in thin brown paper, Star Tribune reported. Handy knew of rumors about an antique family Bible that dated back to the Revolutionary War that contained genealogy information and was surprised to discover it tucked away in an attic. The 76-year-old brought the Bible back to his home in Minnesota and had it restored with the help of Bailey Kinsky, a book conservator.
"It's special to have something that's been in someone's family for that long," Kinsky said. Handy's Bible was unlike most recent bibles that were mass produced as it dates back to 1767. Instead, the family heirloom Bible was "hand-sewn, simple and small enough to be slipped into a pocket or a saddlebag."
Handy said, "This is the oldest artifact my family has in its possession."
