A Michigan woman is searching for two pieces of jewelry close to her heart after losing them during a hospital visit earlier this month. One of the pieces – a silver heart-shaped locket – contains the ashes of her 11-month-old son, who died in 2012 after succumbing to a heart defect, CNN reported.
Niles resident Amanda Shears wrote on Facebook last week that when she had surgery on June 2, she put the necklace and her wedding ring in her coat pocket, which she and her husband left in their car after she returned home.
Since Shears didn’t leave the house during her recovery, the couple didn’t realize the items were missing until a week later.
Although Shears believes the “most likely possibility” is that the jewelry was stolen from the car, she still believes there is a chance that they may have fallen out of her coat at the hospital.
Shears’ Facebook post asking for help has been shared more than 27,000 times as of Friday.
“I’m hoping that this post will help get them back,” she wrote. “Of course I would love all of it back but I can’t replace Z and the necklace is not valuable to anyone except me.”
The couple has filed police reports in Niles and Kalamazoo, where the Bronson Methodist Hospital is located, CNN reported. Nothing was turned into the hospital, staff said.
“It’s my wedding ring of seven years,” Shears said. “We’ve been through a lot in this time, and the ring can be replaced, but my son’s ashes are only valuable to me.”
A similar necklace was found, but it didn’t turn out to be hers, Shears wrote on Thursday. Shears and her husband had heard that the ring had been offered for sale online, but the post was deleted.
Shears’ son, Zealen, spent six weeks in the hospital before died. He “couldn’t fight anymore,” his mother said.
(H/T: CNN)