'It was fate:' Bay Area dad is reunited with a lost gift from his late father
MARTINEZ, Calif. (KTVU) - Sometimes going out of your way with a simple gesture and act of thoughtfulness can yield gifts beyond anything you expected.
That was the experience of Martinez resident Kelly DeBlander, who says it was fate that brought her to return a treasured gold bracelet belonging to a little girl last Sunday, back into the hands of the child's father almost a year after it was lost.
The bracelet was first retrieved during one of DeBlander's daily walk. It is a route that she's taken for more than five years.
The delicate piece of jewelry in the middle of the road caught her eye as the morning sunlight bounced off it.
It was small and clearly belonged to a child.
DeBlander says she picked up the item and kept it in her walking pouch for a few months with hopes she would one day come across its owner.
She thought if she ever saw someone in the area with a child, perhaps during one of her walks, she would ask if that person had lost a bracelet.
Months passed. DeBlander never found the owner and she moved the item out of her pouch for safe keeping in her home.
She had all but forgotten about it when for some reason the bracelet came to mind a couple weeks ago.
DeBlander is part of a club of car enthusiasts. That's how she recently met Firas Masarweh, whom she learned lives along her daily walking route.
He's also the father of two-year-old twin girls.
During their car club meeting on Sunday, DeBlander brought up the bracelet to Masarweh on the off-chance it belonged to one of his daughters.
DeBlander recalls Masarweh's reaction as being "one of the most bone chilling moments in my life."
Masarweh listened to the description of the bracelet and tears started rolling.
"I was extremely overwhelmed," he said. "Oh my god, I gave her the biggest hug ever," he recalled.
The lost jewelry had been part of a matching gift set to his daughters from his late father.
"The bracelet was the only thing my father ever bought them," Masarweh explained to KTVU.
In fact, his father, excited about the arrival of his granddaughters, purchased the bracelets before the girls were even born.
The twins' father says the girls were barely 5 months old when his father passed away.
"If anyone knew the steps that had to happen for this, nobody would ever believe this. It's amazing," Masarweh said.
He also noted that it's not like he and the DeBlanders live on the same street. There are at least two miles that separate their homes.
It was only about a month ago when he first met DeBlander and her husband Jerry through the car club.
Masarweh says he thinks it was a sign from his father that this bracelet was returned through a series of chance opportunities.
He believes his father wanted DeBlander to be the one to find the bracelet and that his dad knew that they would eventually cross paths and end up being good friends.
What's more, the bracelet was returned three days before Masarweh's father would have celebrated his 66th birthday.
"This is such an amazing feeling," DeBlander wrote in a Facebook post.
She called this event one of the most special moments in her life. "...truly shows that fate is why our paths crossed and I was able to reunite such a special gift to its rightful owners!!!" she wrote.
She returned a lost treasure and in turn received a treasure of her own, a memory that she says she will always cherish.