“It must be a miracle” | Necklace returned after it was lost during storm in Rehoboth Beach

A Pennsylvania woman was overwhelmed with emotion, saying “it must be a miracle,” after a necklace that memorializes her late son was returned days after she lost it on the beach in the midst of a storm in Rehoboth.

“In this world full of pain, there’s hope knowing there are people out there who care,” explained Judy Pritchett, who lost her charm necklace on Monday, August 19 after spending the day at the beach visiting her bestfriend Jane Wallis.

When a storm rolled in that afternoon, many beachgoers rolled out, including Pritchett and Wallis who rushed to gather their things and leave the beach and, as a result, Pritchett lost the necklace.

The charm necklace, which bears an engraving of Pritchett and her late son, Matthew on one of the charms, is immeasurably meaningful to Pritchett who was devastated after realizing it was lost.

When they found out that the necklace was missing, Pritchett and Wallis raced back to the beach in the hopes of finding it, but sadly it was nowhere to be found and heavy rainfall and high winds were blanketing the beach at the time.

Wallis suggested, as so many others do in similar circumstances, to use social media to get the word out. It wasn’t long, perhaps a few days, before hundreds had shared their online plea to find the necklace. Dozens even joined in on the search, hitting the beach with metal detectors.

“Hundreds and hundreds of people praying for her,” Wallis said recounting the reception on social media. “People taking metal detectors to the beach to look for it.”

On Friday, August 23, Wallis received a call from a local lifeguard who said he saw the social media posts and believed that the necklace a woman found and handed him days ago belonged to Pritchett.

“We went down to the beach, met the lifeguard, and the necklace has been returned to her,” Wallis said. “This just meant the world to her, like a part of Matthew had returned to her. Almost like he came down from heaven and placed it in the proper person’s hand.”

Pritchett calls the return of her necklace a miracle. She expressed thanks for the kindness and help of so many who assisted in the return of her most cherished item.

“Matthew was truly my gift from God, and to all who knew him,” Pritchett concluded. “My trust and faith in God is strong. I believe God is in all of us, and sometimes beautiful things come into our lives out of nowhere.”