When my sisters and I began going through my mother's things after she passed, we could not find the pin in with the rest of her jewelry. We felt really horrible. Then, miraculously (St. Anthony had a a hand in this!) we found the pin almost by chance, after unfolding a crochet shawl my mother had made. She had worn the Darling pin with the shawl, but had the foresight to attach it to the shawl with a vinyl (invisible) thread so it would not be lost by accident. So I took the pin home and placed it in my jewelry box.
A few weeks ago, I was looking for the pin. I swear I took apart my jewelry box looking for it, but it was not there. I asked my sister Barbara if she had it by chance - she did not, but promised to say a prayer to St. Anthony, asking for his assistance. I did so as well. I looked in the attic, trying to find my mother's shawl. I couldn't find that either (although I did find a shawl she had made for me). I felt just awful, thinking it was gone for good.
Today, I set about cleaning my completely messy and disorganized house (Robert is coming here on Tuesday!!). I have been in the process of setting up a makeup table in an antique desk in our room (more on that in a future blog post). I decided to do a clean and purge of my jewelry box (something I had planned on doing whilst looking for the pin; there was so much in there that I no longer wanted, and it was bursting at the seams). And what do you think happened? I found "Darling"!! She is now in a small box, safely in the jewelry box, so I will always know exactly where she is.
I'm so happy!