I was immediately intrigued by the phone message I got at work from a woman named Missy in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
She had found a young Vilonia man’s wallet. “We’re letting it dry out,” she said. It was full of credit cards, hunting licenses, gift cards, an ID — and lots of sand.
“You actually wrote a story about his family … in Vilonia.” She pronounced it Vil-own-uh, instead of Vil-own-yah. I can’t blame her for that.
I knew the story she was talking about. Lori Patterson of Vilonia lost her young husband, Teddy, to a heart attack in May 2009, five years before she lost her home in an April 2014 tornado. It was the home where they raised their children — son Hayden and daughter Lauren.
The twister also snatched a photograph of Teddy with his beloved hunting dog, swirled it around and dropped it 75 miles away in Batesville, where a resident found it in her yard and returned it to Lori.
Lori said she felt like it was Teddy saying, “I’m still with you.”
It’s impossible to forget stories like that.
The phone message said someone found a wallet and turned it in to the staff at Gulf State Park in Alabama. Employees were desperately trying to locate Hayden or his mother. In her search online, Missy found the article I wrote and decided to see if I could help.
What reporter wouldn’t jump all over that? I called Missy back as fast as I could punch buttons on my desk phone.
Missy said she tried unsuccessfully to find a Facebook page for Hayden. They called Verizon and got a phone number and called it, which turned out to be Teddy’s. Another Gulf State Park employee had contacted the Gulf Shores Police Department. Then they found my article.
“We’re hoping he’s still here, and we can get it back to him,” she told me.
I told her I’d be glad to help. I knew I could go to Facebook and send out a message, but I felt that was taking the easy way out. I first tried to find a number for Lori, but I didn’t. I found her husband’s obituary, and I saw the names of his parents and her parents, so I started with the older couples, who were likely to have home phones. Bingo.
I left a crazy message for her father-in-law, Mack, about the lost wallet. He called me back within minutes.
He said the family was back from their vacation, and Hayden was in school at UCA. They’d canceled all the credit cards. He thanked me and gave me Lori’s and Hayden’s phone numbers.
I left a message for Hayden and then called Lori.
When I told her Hayden’s wallet had been found, she just started laughing.
“You’re kidding,” she said.
“That was two summers ago.”
Their trip was two years ago. And the wallet turned up now.
And — they hadn’t even been to Gulf State Park in Alabama. They stayed about 10 miles away in Perdido Key, Florida.
Lori and I talked about her “crazy luck” of lost items turning up, and I gave her Missy’s number.
Hayden called me back, and I asked him if he’d lost his wallet.
He hesitated. “Mmm, like two years ago?” he asked.
I told him the story.
“That’s crazy,” he said. “It was one night we had ordered a pizza — I had my wallet, because I paid for my pizza. We went to the beach after we got the pizza. … I guess it got lost in the sand. We looked everywhere, got up the next morning and looked for it again. I never thought I’d see it again.”
Missy also laughed when I called back to say the wallet had been buried somewhere, or had washed ashore, two years after Hayden lost it. She’s mailing it back to him.
It should be here just in time for his 19th birthday on Friday.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.