The loss of a parent can be devastating for people no matter how old they are. However, when a young child loses a parent when young, the grief can be overwhelming and can shape the rest of their lives.
After losing his WWI veteran father, a 5-year-old boy clung to 1 of his father’s belongings as it was the only way he felt connected to him. So when that 1 piece of his father vanished as well, he embarked on a lifelong journey to figure out what had happened to it…
Featured photo credit: www.time.com
Forever Changed
When people are sent off to war, they hope to be 1 of the lucky ones that makes it home to their loved ones alive. However, even the ones who manage to survive the battlefield usually don’t come home the same as how they were when they went to war.
The Scars Of War
For the men and women who have gone off to war, moving on and transitioning back into civilian life can feel impossible for those struggling with the physical and emotional scarring left behind by what they’ve witnessed or experienced. For some, the things they have been exposed to leaves them battling a completely different kind of fight…
A WWI Veteran
When Stephen was on the battlefields fighting in WWI, he dreamed about surviving the trenches and getting back to his family back in England. After fighting for years, Stephen was awarded several medals for his bravery and was finally sent home.
The Fight Isn’t Over
Stephen tried to settle into his new life and even became a father, however, he soon learned that his fight wasn’t over yet. Soon after starting his family, Stephen discovered he had lung disease as a result of inhaling gas while fighting in the trenches…
The Battle Is Over
In 1938, Stephen ultimately lost his battle with lung cancer and passed away. At the time, his son Ben was only 5 years old and was given his father’s Mons Star medal, which Stephen earned because of his role during the 1st British infantry unit fire on the Germans at the Battle of Mons on August 14, 1914.
The Medal
The 5-year-old was told to keep the medal as a way to remember his late father, and Ben never went anywhere without the Mons Star medal, also known as the 1914 Star. Whenever Ben missed his father, all he had to do was reach into his pocket to fell a connection to him…
The Empty Pocket
Months passed by but Ben still refused to go anywhere without his father’s medal. So when the family went on a day trip to Brighton, Ben brought it with him. However, at some point that afternoon on the beach, Ben reached into his pocket and realized the medal was gone.
The Frantic Search
Ben frantically looked around the rocky beach he had been playing on, but couldn’t find the medal anywhere. In a panic, he cried out to his family that it was gone and they all started searching all around the pebbly beach…
Going Home Empty Handed
At the end of the day, the 5-year-old and his family had carefully and tirelessly combed the beach for the Mons Star, but, sadly, they didn’t have any luck finding it and were forced to call off the search when it was time to head home.
A Severed Connection
Ben was absolutely devastated the he had lost the 1 thing that he had been given in memory of his father. Without the medal, he no longer felt the connection to his dad that he had whenever he held it in his tiny hands…
In Denial
Ben was heartbroken, especially since everyone in his family told him that he would just have to accept that the medal was gone and would likely never be seen again. The 5-year-old, however, refused to believe that he would never find it.
Decades Later
Over the years, Ben never stopped looking for his father’s medal at the beach in Brighton where it first went missing. As decades passed and Ben became a man, he started to wonder if someone had picked the medal up and taken it not knowing where it came from…
Refusing To Give Up
Ben started looking through archives, antique fairs, and private collections whenever he could in the hopes that he would find the 1914 Star with his father’s name inscribed on the back. No matter how many time his efforts failed, Ben refused to give up the search.
The Next Generation
Even when Ben got married and started his own family, he never gave up the search for his priceless memento. When his children were old enough, he even told them the story of what happened and always told them to keep an eye out for the medal…
The Search Continues
According to Jane Bulmer, Ben’s now middle-aged daughter, her father would often bring the family to the beach in Brighton where the medal vanished and encouraged the family to always keep an eye out in case it possibly washed up on shore.
Scouring The Internet
“We had some lovely day trips there but you always had one eye on the beach, just in case,” Jane explained. As Ben got older, he started spending more and more time doing research online in the hopes that he would find the medal or at least some trace of what happened to it…
76 Years Later
Then 1 day about 76 years after the search began, Ben was left speechless by an ad that he found on eBay in 2014. “He couldn’t believe his eyes when an eBay lot suddenly popped up on screen showing a Mons Star inscribed with his father’s name, regiment, and service number,” said Jane.
The Seller
“After all these years of wondering what had happened to it, we just sat there in amazement looking at the screen, hardly daring to believe what we were seeing,” Ben said. “It was part of a five-day auction by a Lincolnshire collector, who had owned the Mons Star for more than 30 years and had now decided to sell it,” Jane explained…
A Bidding War
Ben ended up in a bidding war against another buyer, but was willing to pay anything to get the priceless memento back with the family. Ben even traveled to pick it up himself from the seller to ensure it made it back to his home in Norfolk safely. “The seller had bought it himself from another collector, whose name was long forgotten, and there was no record of what had happened to the medal in the intervening 40 years before he had acquired it,” Jane said.
Back In The Family
“This didn’t matter to my father as the important thing was that the Star had not been lost,” Jane added. “I am delighted it is now back with our family as it serves as an emblem of my father’s heroism, and of the many hundreds of thousands of men who lost their lives or were injured in this terrible conflict.”
82-Year-Old Stumbles Upon Unbelievable eBay Ad 76 Years After Losing Family Treasure is an article from: LifeDaily