Marsha Galespie of Ventnor wears her favorite pair of earrings.
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
VENTNOR It's amazing what happened, but I'm more excited to know who found it and where it was found, said Marsha Galespie of Ventnor about the return of one of her favorite earrings after it went missing for weeks.
The 78-year-old woman who lives in the Ventnor Heights area is known in these parts for her colorful outfits, advocacy for seniors and volunteerism in the community. She was instrumental in rebuilding the Ventnor's C-Sure Children's Park and still does home care for other seniors and organizes periodic meetings for the men of the community to learn about whatever subject she can drum up. One time, it was all about bees. Other times it's about politics or medical issues. The kicker is, she's the only woman in the group.
On Jan. 26, she posted on her Facebook page that she was frantic to find her precious lost earring. Not just any earring, but one that came from half a world away. Her friends said it would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
Galespie purchased the earrings in 2012 for about $2 in an open air market in Uganda. They were made for her by the poorest of the poor and sold as Fair Trade, guaranteeing a living wage for the maker.
I always wear them the most, she said. They match my outfits and bring back great memories.
The beads in the earring are in hues of brown, green and white that complement her favorite color orange.
On Valentine's Day, St. Anthony answered her prayers. She found the earring, slightly damaged, on the top step at her front door.
Galespie's beaded earring was made in Uganda.
Her reaction to seeing it on the step after it was lost for several weeks was, Oh my God, it's happened again.
As she is getting up in years, she has become a little more forgetful. She lost her car it's orange of course - after attending a wedding a few days before Chanukkah in a gorgeous beachblock home in Atlantic City. She knew exactly where she parked, but when she returned to her car after the wedding, it was gone. A few days later, it was found on Merion Avenue, undamaged, but with the seat pushed all the way back, she said.
And then there was the time she lost her keys when visiting a friend at Vassar Square in Ventnor.
They were missing for almost two weeks, she said, until an unidentified man walked into the CVS store in Margate to drop off the keys that he found. The store clerk was able to use the little plastic store tag on the keychain that identified Galespie as a CVS customer and the owner.
I lose things because I'm getting older and forgetting things, but they always seem to come back to me, and I never get thank these wonderful people who keep helping me, she said.
When her neighbors found out she lost her earring, they helped her pray to St. Anthony for its safe return.
I'm Jewish but all my neighbors are Christians, she said.
Galespie said she thinks she lost the earring in one of three places the Margate City Public Library where she went to see a film, the dollar store to get paper products for a birthday party, or the new bakery on Dorset Avenue.
I had a great time at the party, but when I got home, I had no earring, she said. I put it on Facebook to tell the world, and Jim (Cahill), the library director, looked all over the library, indoors and outside, but did not find it. He even let library patrons know about it in case they found it.
She went back to the dollar store and bakery to let them know about the lost bauble, but no one found it, she said.
Although the earrings are not particularly valuable, the memories they spur are, she said.
Every time I wear them, I think about that wonderful trip to Uganda. It was the most amazing trip I've ever taken, she said.
One of the earrings is slightly damaged after going missing for several weeks.
Galespie tagged along with her missionary friends from Brigantine, Philadelphia, Virginia and Michigan, as part of the Real Partners Uganda program, an American faith-based non-profit that serves orphans and vulnerable children at the Mustard Seed Academy.
While I was there, I helped with the younger children in the school. They were adorable, adorable, adorable, she said. I still support one child whose name is Gift, which helps her with her schooling.
Galespie would love to meet the angel who found the earring and quietly returned it.
Her latest Facebook posts reads: PLEASE TELL ME WHO YOU ARE. I will go CRAZY if you Don't. Thank you ever so much I want to HUG YOU.
Although it was slightly damaged, it will easily be repaired, she said.
It's already in the shop, she said. I can't wait to wear them again, but this time they hold even more memories.
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