I'm now going to re-think my P.I. dream

Last Saturday was cold and rainy here. My cousin and his wife who are traveling Florida in their camper/trailer came by to help Tom fix our pool pump that is kaput. My cousin Darrell called me earlier in the week to ask if I had any work for him to do at The Condo because vacationing was making him restless and he needed some projects. I mentioned the pool pump instead, not because I didn't have maintenance issues at The Condo, but because I wasn't too sure of my husband's repairing abilities whereas I knew Darrell would know what the hell he was doing.

He and Kathy arrived with the rain in the morning. He and Tom worked a few hours in the wetness until Tom decided it was too cold and too rainy. He suggested that the two of them head to The Condo to work indoors, and Kathy and I went along to keep an eye on them for the ride. I had told Kathy earlier that morning about the attic and our story that went along with that discovery. Tom had told Darrell. So armed this time with proper equipment, i.e. ladder, drill, we drove up to The Condo and the men went to work on investigating the mystery of the master bedroom switch that bothered Tom. The first thing they did was go into the attic which meant they retrieved the two remaining boxes that Tom had seen in there previously but could not reach.

The first box was the exact replica of the box Tom and I had found full of clothes. This box had a sticky note on the top that was readable. It said, "Chris' Maternity Clothes" and was full of outdated clothing and yellowed pantyhose. Kathy and I were disappointed in this discovery, and after sifting through the musty smelling clothes we tossed it aside.

Darrell: "Want me to bring down the gold treasure chest next?" (A reference to my thinking there would be money and treasure in the attic.)
Me: "Smart Ass"

A few minutes later Tom came out with the second box, and it was much more exciting. It was a huge box, a bit aged from years in the attic, but all sealed and on it is said, "Bridal Chest". There was a cleaner's receipt stapled to the outside of the box from a local cleaners and while the writing on it was faded we could make out some of it. There was a phone number clearly visible and it stated that the job was to clean, preserve and store a wedding dress. The date was May 1987. There was a name written in the top corner of the receipt, but all I could make out was the last three letters as the first letter was too faded.

We wondered aloud if we should open it, and then because we had nothing else too do and we were nosy, we set about to open it. It was not easy. The cleaners had done a terrific job of packing and wrapping and sealing. The box opened easily enough to reveal another box wrapped and sealed in a blue, heavy, plastic bag. We took that off and found a gold box which we made sure to shove in Darrell's nose because it really did look like a gold treasure box.

That box was very hard to open. It was sealed on three sides and while we got the front opened the other two proved to be very difficult. I cut my finger on one side and eventually Kathy got a knife and we spent several minutes working the tabs out. At this point we both commented on whether we should continue with the unveiling, but again, we were too curious. With the knife and our fingers pushing and pulling, we finally opened the gold box to find another box with a see through lid that revealed the wedding dress.

It was nicely folded with tissue paper so that the front of the dress was displayed in the box. We, of course, opened the box. The dress was nicely preserved. It was still white (the above photo was my shadow hovering) and quite lovely with the beading still intact. It was a size 12. We decided not to take the dress out of the box. Kathy and I sat down and talked about the owner instead.

Me: "It's almost 30 years old. How old do you think the owner would be now?"

Kathy: "I don't know."

Me: "Well, if she got married in her 20's that would put her in her 50's now."

Kathy: "Or older if she got married later."

Me: "I feel like we should try to find her. Should we try to find her?"

Kathy: "Would she even want this? Why didn't she take it with her?"

Me: "Maybe her mother was storing it? But why wouldn't they remember the attic when they moved?"

Kathy: "Maybe the mother died and they didn't know the stuff was up there just like you."

Me: "That could be true."

We got back up and examined the cleaners receipt some more. There was a ticket taped to the bottom corner, and I could see that the last two letters matched those in the corner above which made me think the rest of the name was under the ticket. I couldn't get the ticket off without ripping the receipt so Kathy did it. She had way more patience then I did and she carefully picked and peeled until the ticket and tape came up and we saw the complete name.

Me: "Okay, so should I call this number on here?"

Kathy: "It can't hurt."

Me: (I dialed and heard the beep, beep, and a voice telling me the number was no longer in service) "The number is out of service. Do you think the cleaners would still have records that far back?"

Kathy: "Probably not. Legally you have to keep papers and records for tax purposes for only seven years. I doubt they kept thirty years worth of information. Especially not if they weren't computerized then."

Me: "We're making it sound like thirty years was so far back. It's making me feel old."

Kathy: "We're not old."

Me: "Well, I guess she had kids if those are her maternity clothes. Although Chris with a "C" is a guy's name."

Kathy: "Not necessarily. It could be short for Christine. And "C"'s were a more popular spelling in the old days like my name with Cathy instead of Kathy."

Me: "Christine is a possibility. I have the paperwork at home of when my mom purchased the house and the seller's name on it. I could look there and see if it is a Christine or Chris. I think it was a woman."

We sat some more and speculated, and then I got the idea of looking up the information on the property appraiser's website. I spent some time plowing through the various pages on the website until I found that the condo had been sold four times over the years since it was first built. The first owner was not a Chris or a Christine. I couldn't get the second or third owner information to download, and the fourth wasn't working either so I opened another page to look up Christine using the last name on the cleaner's receipt on Google. Of course I got several people with that name so I tried narrowing it down with Florida and the cities around The Condo. Eventually I went back to the first page and discovered that the information had downloaded.

My mother had purchased her Florida home from a single woman whose name appeared along with a Christine with the same last name as the one on the receipt plus her married name and her husband. All three were listed as sellers. Now I had her married name and that of her husband. I tried him first thinking he would be easier to locate. He was a bust. No one by that name was anywhere on the Internet. I went on to Facebook and tried to find Christine. No one by that name popped up.

Me: "Who in their 50's doesn't have Facebook?"

Kathy: "I didn't get Facebook until recently."

Me: "And look how you love it. If we find this woman I'm going to tell her that."

I kept trying the Internet putting in variations of her name. The only hit I got was from a site that wanted me to send them $1 for all Christine' s information including arrests and court appearances. The only helpful thing the site gave me was a local city and her age of 54 so I went to the Whitepages app and put in her name and the city and VIOLA I got an address and a phone number.

Me: "Do you think that's it? Could it really be that simple?"

Kathy: "Call and see."

So I did. I got a machine and so I started leaving a message with my name and the fact that I had inherited this condo and had found a wedding dress in the attic and had put two and two together and was looking for Christine. Before I could leave my number a male voice came on.

Male: "Hold on! Hold on! Hold on a minute."

Me: "Okay."

Female: "Hello? Cara?"

Me: "Christine?"

It was her. She couldn't believe I had found her wedding dress let alone her. I couldn't believe it had been that simple. I've seen enough stories via the Internet of people who search for years to return personal items they have found. Christine kept thanking me for tracking her down. She wanted to hear the story so I told it to her. She wanted to know what else I found and that stopped me for a moment since I had chucked the previous attic finds the week before. I told her we had her maternity clothes. She gave me directions to her house, and I told her we would drop the dress off on our way to grab a bite to eat. Kathy and I closed up the wedding dress box and put it into the other box and that one into the other box. We used the blue, plastic bag to put the box with the maternity clothes in it. By that time the men were finished and we all set off to meet Christine.

We found her house with no problem. She met us outside very excited, although a tad apprehensive. She told us after she hung up she worried about strangers and identity theft, but our showing up with a wedding dress I think reassured her. We handed it over.

Christine: "I can't believe you would go to all of this trouble. I can't believe you found me so easily. That's a little scary."

Me: "Well, in this world of social media I don't think anyone can stay hidden for long."

Christine: "I know, but I'm not on social media. I mean, I've never ever BEEN on Facebook."

Me: "Yeah I did discover that. What woman in her fifties isn't on Facebook?"

Christine: "Me."

Me: "Girl, you're missing out. And just so you know I'm a blogger and this certainly is going to be going on my site. I hope that's okay with you."

Christine: "Oh. Sure. Thank you SO much. I only have a son so I'm not sure what I'll do with this dress, but it is SO exciting. Thank you."

She kept thanking me and then the rain started again so I bid her good-bye. I really wanted to take her picture with the dress for my blog, but she still seemed apprehensive and so I didn't. We left her in her garage with a man, who may have been or may not have been her husband, the two of them bending over the box laughing in wonderment.

We left and toasted our success with beers at dinner, although Kathy had coffee. And then we all had another round to toast our success again with the dress, The Condo, the pool pump, and with family togetherness.