Finding Time - It's a Miracle - 6033

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and now your host Richard Thomas hello and welcome to it's a miracle this episode could easily be dedicated to st. Anthony the patron saint of lost objects for each of our stories concerns something lost and eventually found in a truly remarkable way first a story that proves that at least we're lost objects are concerned time and tide wait for one man there's nothing like long summers on a beautiful lake to fill a lifetime with precious memories for Greg kandar's Lake Lucerne near Bangor Maine is just such a place it is such a unique changing like all the time you can go to many different areas of this lake and turn a corner and it looks totally different than the spot that you were just in so there's always a surprise around the next corner or in the next Cove but the surprises aren't limited to just the surface of the lake as soon as you get underwater it becomes an entirely different environment becomes very quiet becomes very peaceful greg's love of diving allows him to indulge in his passion for treasure hunting I enjoy finding items that people have lost because it's so rewarding to find something that means something very special to someone to be able to give it back to them it's a wonderful pastime one that he enjoys sharing with other people and in the summer of 2000 Greg took his treasures for the first time to the home of Mary dresser a longtime lake resident hi Mary how are you today look I said the other day I'll stop by and show you some of the things I found one I've been diving in the lake is this a good time to take a look Oh wonderful yeah I'd love to see oh great I enjoyed talking about the lake hearing some of the history from somebody who had actually been here in some of the early days of this lake any members and Mary dresser had a lifetime of stories that revolved around lake lucerne my father was fished there around 1915 there was no Road around there like there is now he had to go by boat to get to both of the camps we came down for the summer we never went back to the city once we get down for the summer we stayed right there but I always said that's the best legacy my father could have left to be was this Lake because I loved it every summer throughout her childhood Mary would look forward to the arrival of her best friend Barbara babble is special to me because we had so much in common [Music] I love to swim we were always in the water I can't remember when I probably didn't have a bathing suit on we spent a lot of time on the islands lot of nights on the islands sleeping out over there we'd build a fire and cook a supper there's a pretty simple life really we think of things to do we made fun out of everything we did my whiskey Chinese chopsticks chow mein I just look forward to seeing Barbara coming you know every summer and what she looked forward to most was the long afternoons they spent together fishing the others didn't care too much about fishing but we did so we was always trying to find a boat so we could go fishing we just stay out there for hours trying to catch a bass a big one Mary's memories of fishing with Barbara rekindled another story from the past I'd like to tell you a little story about something I know it was lost in the lake years ago great friend of mine it started on a summer day in 1932 when Barbra Jean Dorothea entrusted her with a precious keepsake whatever are you doing young lady we're going fishing make sure you don't soil you a pretty outfit I won't well wait here take my watch and make sure you're back on time I will be remember we went off her beach was probably using her boat that day and we went out on this Third Point because there were big bass of them we wanted to get a big one we didn't want any of these little ones anymore so question one are so clear in this lake you can look down to the bottom anyway long ways down and to see him we could see him down there swimming around and trying to get him to bite off worms I saw that watch go down to the bottom of the lake and we tried and tried whiticus we couldn't get all of it it was too deep for us to die down we both of the swimmers but we couldn't die that deep I say we give her to think she had to go to show up and tell her and she lost that nice wash down the bottom flick that was scary [Music] so I guess I'll see you tomorrow bye Barbara wherever have you been we need to get going we were scared to go ashore I bet you were lost that watch I was afraid for her I didn't have to face so much when Mary finished telling the story of the long lost wristwatch Greg began to wonder if it might still be down there Mary do you suppose you could remember pretty close to where you were when this happened yes I think I do like exactly where it was I was really excited to think that there was something out there like that that meant so much to somebody that if I could find something like that it would be like passing them an entire box of memories and saying here open it up [Music] a few days later Gregg took his boat and his metal detector to the rocky edge of herd point to try his luck I actually did not feel that I would find this watch there were just too many variables involved the fact that so much time had passed the fact that the site had not really been narrowed down all that well and when I got down on to the bottom I just started moving along checking out with a metal detector and in the process of doing so I started finding a lot of pieces of metal that were not what I was looking for and at that point was kind of discouraged and thought well this is just another lost cause it's just another one of the items I've gone to look for that I didn't have correct information and it never would be found and so I thought well I'll swim back to the boat but I figured I'd drop down to the bottom and swim in that direction anyway and check as I went back towards the boat and as I went across this area I picked up a beep in the metal detector so I dug down through the green mossy material and started to make a little hole in the bottom as Greg dug deeper into the lakebed the metal detector continued to respond to something buried below by now I had gone all the way down until eight or ten inches down through the mossy material and down through the mud into a layer of gravel and I would filter out the material in my hand and watch it to see if there's any items in it I was letting this gravel sift out through my hand and there was a metallic object so I turned the metallic object over and I rubbed it with my thumb and I could see the face of a watch and I knew that this was what I had been looking for I was holding a watch in my hand that had been on the bottom of the lake for 68 years the last person to touch that watch was Mary dresses best friend Barbara and I was the first person to touch that watch since that entire time and it just made me feel incredible that I had located it Gregg decided that before he showed the watch to Mary he would take the time to clean it you could still read the time on it you could read the manufacturer you could see the second hand and it was still in very good shape but was it aunt Dorothea's watch that question would be answered by a jeweler in Bangor Maine the gentleman at the watch repair shop asked me to tell him how the strap was attached when I told him and he said that dates the watch in the 1920s or early 30s which gave me pretty much concrete proof that this had to be married dresses best friend barbers watch take a look at what I found anxious to return the treasure to Barbara Gregg first took it to Mary dresser it was just a wonderful experience to see the reaction from her and to realize through her eyes just how much it meant to us I can't believe you found this one I think it's amazing you never in my wildest dreams did I find that watch knowing that her dear friend would be overjoyed by the discovery Mary gave Gregg the phone number for Barbara's son John alter [Music] hello John this is Greg Candice calling from Bangor Maine the first thing that struck me about Greg was that he had a real story to tell your mom lost his watch over the side of the boat I thought that I knew every story from my mother's past and she had never mentioned this watch his story you know started to really warm my heart because it was the watch and she was about to turn 80 well she is his mother's birthday was coming up the following month and I thought oh what a tremendous surprise this would be if I packaged it up as a birthday present to her on December 17 2000 our bure altar found herself surrounded by family and friends gathered to celebrate her 80th birthday little did Barbara know that she was about to receive the surprise of a lifetime my eighth birthday party comes I have children who write poems about things and it's my just son John's turn to read his poem which is every event he always has a poem and he stands up and starts a letter dear mrs. alter my name is Greg kandar's and I live in Bangor Maine and though we have never met I think an address something mean and dear mrs. ultry I think how does strange way to get at what he wants to say about his mother the story begins sixty-eight years ago in a beautiful cove near heard Brook luckily another young lady the same age named married Lux lived in the only other cottage in your coat by the second paragraph all of a sudden it dawns I mean this is a real letter from someone I don't know and I'm just absolutely flabbergasted one day when you were 12 years old you had made plans to head off in your rowboat your aunt Dorothea was staying with you and she gave you her wristwatch that you would be home by a certain time what a great day it must have been two young girls off for another summer adventure on the lake the last stop was a herd point it was fun to lean over the side of the boat and look down into the crystal-clear water and see the large bass swimming way down by the bottom everything was going well until somehow your aunt Dorothea's watch came out of your pocket went over the side of the boat and sunk to the bottom of the lake I cannot imagine how terrible you must have felt because a twelve-year-old girl on your way back to your cottage to tell your aunt that you had lost her watch how scared and disappointed you must have been 68 crisp colorful autumns went past 68 long cold icy Maine winters froze the lake 68 beautiful springs came and went as did 68 warm sunny summers passed since aunt Dorothea's watch landed on the bottom of Lucerne Lake last summer I met your dear old friend married recipe marry told me the story of your aunts watch my birthday gift to you Barbara is this tarnished old watch may it open a treasure chest of wonderful memories memories of sunny days blue skies clear water tree covered green mountains and a loving family perhaps even for a brief moment your memories will take you back and you will become that 12 year old girl again that's as far as John got it was so beautifully written and I was just overwhelmed she was moved and I was moved and it was a great moment mom happy birthday I couldn't believe I was holding this jewelers box and I opened it up and there was the watch pure it is in my hands is just unbelievable it's miraculous oh my goodness gracious it's so incredible and it completely transformed the whole birthday party that became the event where's the watch everyone had to look at and I'm overcome and Gregg was not there as a Mary dresser was not there and yet they were very much present it was a very palpable sense that those people who had loved the lake before us were there as witnesses the following summer Barbara returned to her childhood playground to visit her dear friend Mary and to meet the man who had delivered the gift of the lake to her birthday party it just gave me such an overwhelming sense of pride in such an overwhelming wave of happiness that it's just been tremendous you got an awful nice mom a lot of things to talk about I think people who spend time in an area like this get humbled a little bit because you can see that there's something much greater happening around you and you're just a small part of it and every once in a while everything all comes together and lines up and produces something like this happening which makes you feel very nice hey you got a new watch [Music] [Laughter] to me it's so wonderful that he has responded to the lake the way I have which means that he has that side of him like you want every human being to have and I just think he's remarkable even more remarkable is the friendship between Barbara and Mary a friendship that has lasted for nearly 70 years perhaps us like our fishing relationship that we don't need to say a lot we just feel very very close to each other so I just have one more pretty precious friend they have we had wonderful times together she looks the same to me I can see it just as a child I mean he looks just to say like a watch that stopped ticking sixty-eight years ago time has stood still on lake lucerne for childhood friends mary dresser and barbara alter the miracle for me is the lake itself and all this in my life reality is something that is so important to all of us and so hard to find and the lake and the sphere of the lake the joy of the lake is real and we need to learn to see that side of life more often I don't know about you but I feel like packing my bags and moving to Maine what beautiful scenery and friendly people well we wanted to catch up with everyone involved in this story and so Gregg Barbara and Mary join us now from lake lucerne hello everyone first of all gregg news travels pretty fast around a small lake as anyone else asked you to hunt for lost treasures I've had one request to look for another lost watch and I suspect that after this is air there may be a few more requests coming into I think it's going to be interesting to see if I do hear from any other people one of the things that I've really enjoyed about this whole episode is that I'm sure as a young lady that Barbara had a lot of guilt about losing her aunt's watch and this finally gives her a little bit of closure to that whole event correct speaking of aunt Dorothea what do you think she would say about all this okay there they must be laughing up in heaven I'm sure she's very happy very happy that such a good end came to that story and what about the watch I keep in the left hand outside corner of my coffee table with the lid up because I like to look at it I try to keep it dusted and there it is Mary you and Barbara have had an incredibly long friendship how is this incident affected your relationship well it's made us big even closer I'm always glad to see each other yeah finally weight everything well I want to thank you for taking the time to share your story with us and I want to wish you many more lovely summers together on the lake thank you very much we're very happy right now you [Music] [Music]

Channel: Questar Entertainment

Views: 26,414

Rating: 4.8942456 out of 5

Keywords: Questar, finding time, richard thomas, it's a miracle, inspirational, miracles, lost watch, family watch lost, lake lucerne, lucerne lake, phillips lake, maine, maine lake, family heirloom, lake diver, lake diving, lost object found, watch found, lost watch found, treasure hunting, metal detector, best girlfriends, hurd point, clearwater lake, family heirloom lost, bangor maine, good story, special birthday present, 80th birthday

Id: H8ik31ty9z0

Length: 22min 11sec (1331 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 01 2019