When volunteers at an Arizona thrift store found a priceless item in a donation box, they knew they couldn’t sell it.
When volunteers at an Arizona thrift store found a priceless item in a donation box, they knew they couldn’t sell it.
Thrift store volunteer Tessa Ferrin says a customer came to her with quite the unique item. “One of the ladies brought something up to me and said, I think this is a Purple Heart,” Ferrin told KPHO.
The medal is given to members of the military who have been wounded or killed while serving. Teresa was determined to reunite it with its rightful owner. She started with the name she found on it, Erik Karl Blauberg.
After some research, Teresa found out Blauberg lived in Apache Junction until he died in the 1980s. She was also able to find the names of his children, then searched Facebook to find them, leading her to Lisa Walker, one of his daughters.
“I didn't even know he had a Purple Heart would be the only thing we ever had of my father's,” Walker said.
Walker says her father wasn’t in her life much as she and her seven siblings were growing up.
But she was still thankful Ferrin went out of her way to make sure the medal ended up in the hands of his children.
“I couldn't be more thankful for her. She never gave up on it,” Walker said.
Decades after his death, Blauberg's Purple Heart was on its way to his daughter in Florida, giving Walker a piece of her dad back.
“I do think it's a sign from my father. But I don't know, it's just hard, it's...it's like bittersweet,” said Walker.
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