81-Year-Old Gets Purse Back 65 Years After Losing It And It's Like A 'Time Capsule'

Oct 07, 2021 by apost team

Sometimes life really is stranger than fiction. In a 2019 story out of Jeffersonville, Indiana, a sleepy town on the Ohio River, a construction crew discovered something strange while tearing out cabinets for a remodeling project at the local Jeffersonville High School. They had found an old, black purse full of school dance photos, lipstick, a checkbook and love letters — all from the 1950s.

The bag eventually got into the hands of Erin Bojorquez, a Greater Clark County School District employee, who made a lost and found post with a photo of the bag on Facebook. Even though Bojorquez was able to trace the bag back to 1954 and had the owner’s name, Martha Ina Ingham, finding her more than half a century later seemed like a long shot.

But the post spread far and wide on the social media platform, and eventually, Martha’s son, John Folea, came upon the post. Folea forwarded it to Martha, who goes by Marty Ingham Everett today.

Once they had identified the bag’s original owner, they sent it off to then 81-year-old Everett, who lives in Florida.

“It was like opening a time capsule,” Everett told The Washington Post back in 2019.

According to the publication, Everett’s purse — which included her junior prom invite and three love letter — had made its way into a forgotten cabinet in the science room in 1954, sitting completely undisturbed for decades until the construction crew’s discovery.

But the story of Everett’s forgotten purse gets even better.

After the post looking for the purse’s owner went viral on Facebook, local news outlets covered Everett’s story and revealed photos of some of the bag’s contents.

Among the 1950s makeup products and other mid-century finds, Everett’s bag also included three letters from lovers — “Torchy,” Carter and Paul.

“Dear Marty, I’ve heard that Paul has asked you to go the prom with him,” one note reads, according to The Washington Post. “If he hasn’t, I would like very much to take you. Love, Torchy.”

“Dear Marty, Bobbie and I aren’t going back together,” Carter wrote. “I’m just continuing to walk her to classes. She asked me if I would, and I told her that I would. I’m just trying to be friends with everybody.”

Readers who found out about Everett’s story repeatedly asked and were curious who she ended up taking to the dance.

​​Everett told the Post that her date was Carter Williams, who was her first boyfriend.

“I had an awful lot of things in my purse, but I know that the letter from Carter was special. That’s why I kept it,” Everett said.

She added, “The letters from the other two boys meant something to me, too. Why else would I have carried them with me everywhere?"

Thanks to the recovered purse and all the news coverage, Everett even got in touch with her high school sweetheart despite having never spoken to him since high school graduation. Williams, who was also 81 at the time of the Post’s coverage in 2019, said he was elated to hear from his old flame.

“It was amazing to reconnect and reminisce about a time that is so different from today,” he told the Post. “We respected our teachers, we respected the law, and we respected our parents. We had more time to sit around a table and just talk or listen. I feel very lucky to have grown up when I did.”

apost.com

What do you think of this incredible story? Have you ever found something special that you lost long ago? Let us know — and be sure to pass this story on to others.