WWII veteran's long-lost bracelet reunited with Georgia family

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - A DeKalb County family is reunited with a heartfelt memento from a loved one and a piece of history lost nearly 80 years ago and nearly 5,000 miles apart.

The silver bracelet tells the story of a love that crossed the ocean, a hero who fought in a terrible war, and two communities tied together nearly 80 years later. It started last September when Gina Burke got a phone call from Italian historian Paolo Pavoloni.

"He found the bracelet because he is an archaeologist. With the metal detector, he found the bracelet. He wanted to find the family," Burke said.

The bracelet had her father's name engraved, Fred C. Street. His army serial number was on the back, along with two simple words that said so much.

"It says 'Yours Dot,' which is my mother. It’s very dirty. When it was found, Paolo Parolari held it with gloves and hands. He said he would never take the dirt off it and recommended I do the same," she said.

Her father served in the 10th Mountain Division in World War Two. Burke had letters her father sent to her mother all those years ago. One of the letters was dated May 1, days before the war finally came to an end.

"He says, 'Honey, I lost the bracelet you gave me. I hate it bad. I lost it yesterday afternoon. I don’t know where I put it. I guess the chain broke,'" she recalled.

Fred Street (Courtesy of the family)

It was lost on an Italian mountainside, a reminder of the many Americans who gave their all in the war.

"My brother told me, 'You know, Dad was on skis in the 10th Mountain Division, which is a very important part of the war in Italy. He doesn't talk about it.' And he did not. He would never talk about it," Burke said.

Italian historian Paolo Pavoloni (Courtesy of the family)

Those efforts are still honored and revered by the  Italian village where her father once served. Burke witnessed that appreciation firsthand when she traveled more than 4,800 miles across the ocean to pick up the bracelet and meet its finder in person.

"I was overwhelmed when I got there. They put on this wonderful ceremony where they gave me the bracelet and all these gifts. In Italy, they are so grateful. They have a day called Liberation Day," she said.

Burke also returned to the same spot where Pavoloni found the bracelet, the spot where her father stood his ground.

(Courtesy of the family)

"I just sat down and looked at this spot, and you can see where he dug to find the bracelet. That’s where it was – That’s where it fell off my dad’s arms – probably while he was firing back. It was the most beautiful scenery. Just gorgeous, as my dad writes about in the letters. He says, 'This is so beautiful,'" she recalled.

Now, that bracelet is back home, a reminder of a man who kept his love close an ocean away, who's remembered as a hero in America and Italy, and as a reminder that what is lost, is waiting to be found.

"Hope is what it represents. They were fighting for that. They wanted freedom for these people and the world. I hope that generations to come can remember that. Not let that history go," she said.