She held up the stocking and the photo. “Now we found this. An old stocking. And we found a photo inside it.”
“Well, come inside, and let’s see if we can figure out where the stocking came from.” Etta motioned them inside.
They sat at a large wooden table, and she handed the photo to Etta. The woman looked at it carefully. “Looks like a World War II uniform.”
“But how would we ever figure out who he was?”
“I have a file somewhere. It’s in the old paper files that haven’t been scanned yet. That scanning is quite the project. I have to coax our old computers to take the uploads of the scans. Give me a minute or so and let me see if I can find it.”
Etta disappeared, and Evie turned to Randy. “You think she’ll be able to help us?”
“If anyone can, she can.”
Etta returned with a stack of files in her hands. She sat down and opened the top file. “Ah, ha. I knew we had this. A list of islanders who fought in World War II. Looks like we had a dozen men who fought.”
“But how do we figure out if this stocking was one of theirs?”
Etta picked up another file. “There are photos from that time period in here. Let’s see what we find.” She set the photos out, one by one. But none held any clue.
Frustration swept through her. Maybe they really wouldn’t figure out why this stocking was in Nana’s box.
“Wait, this might help.” Etta held out a photo of eight men in uniform. She flipped it over and smiled. “And some kind soul wrote the names of the men on the back.”
They all looked closely at the photo. “That man at the end…” Evie pointed. “Does that look like the same man in our photo?”
“It does, kind of. It’s so faded though.” Randy frowned. “What is his name?” He pointed to the last man in the photo.
Etta flipped it over. “That’s Warren Guthrie. That will help us. Let’s see what we can find out about Warren. We’ve got photos of the high school graduating class from every year. That’s already scanned and online.” She scooted over to the computer and typed into the search bar. The computer just sat there. “Come on, girl. You can do it,” Etta said encouragingly to the machine. As if it heard her, it popped up a grid of photos.
“There—that’s him, right?” She pointed to a young man.
“Sure looks like him.” Randy nodded.
Etta typed into the computer again and read the screen. She clicked and read some more. “Listen to this. It looks like Warren’s mother passed away and that was all the family he had. It says the town all got together and sent items to him in 1943. There’s a list of items. Razors, bars of homemade soap, candy, and look here. A hand-knit Christmas stocking.”
“You think this is that stocking?” She peered at the article on the screen.
“I’d have to think so.” Etta nodded as she clicked the mouse again and another photo popped up.
“Look… it’s there.” Evie clapped her hands in excitement. “On that table with all the gifts.”
Randy leaned in, reading the words under the article. “It says the Christmas stocking was knit by Mrs. Chancey.”
Her mouth dropped open in surprise. “That would have been some relative of Nana’s, right? Well, a relative of Grandfather’s, I suppose.”
“Right, because Miss G married into the Chancey family.” Randy nodded.
“So you think that’s how Nana ended up with it?”
“Maybe.” Randy smiled. “Maybe she heard this story and found the stocking and saved it. Part of her history.”
Suddenly, a terrible thought struck her. She swallowed hard. “Etta… do you know if Warren made it back from the war?” she asked softly.
“Let’s see if we can find mention of him after 1945.” Etta clicked way on the keyboard, searching. Soon her face broke into a wide smile. “Look here. It’s Warren and his wife and two little girls.”
Relief rushed through her. “Oh, I’m so glad.”
“Looks like we have a happy ending to this item.” Randy grinned.
