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Emma Smreker Davis: Bringing the past back to life.
A 30-year-old Oklahoma City area high school teacher, Emma has an unusual hobby.
She visits thrift shops and flea markets seeking hidden treasures. What treasures?
(Story continues from "Read More")
Long lost memories tucked away in old books.
Recently, she found a 13-year-old photo strip taken in Santa Cruz, California of a father, then 44 and his 4-year-old little daughter mugging it up for the camera.
They were the Meagher family, Sofia and Tom.
Emma knew the family would treasure this photo strip and using social media and TV she began looking for them.
They live in San Antonio, Texas where their photo-strip was shown on the news.
"I would never have imagined something like this happening to us," Sofia now 17 told The Washington Post. "It brought back so many memories from when I was younger."
Her dad Tom agreed. "It was definitely a little startling to see we were on TV. But seeing Sofia so young brought a tear to my eye."
Emma happily sent the photo-strip to the Meaghers.
But there's an even better story:
At a Norman, Oklahoma flea market Emma found an 1893 letter in a book of poetry, addressed to an Ohio newspaper.
It was a poem entitled "Spring, Goodbye" by Ed Ruffner. Emma located his heirs and sent them a copy.
She then contacted the Lancaster Eagle Gazette, asking if they would like to publish what he had written all those years ago, and had never submitted for publication.
"I'm happy to announce that after 125 years, Mr. Ed Ruffner's beautiful poem about the end of Spring has been published," Emma said. They put it on the frontpage.
Why does she do this?
"I have a fascination with old things because you feel like you're holding a time capsule," Emma told The Post.
"Although you don't know who these people are, finding their things brings you closer to the person that once held the book before you."
Editor's Note: To learn more https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle... and facebook.com/shopwhittybooks/.../
Read the lovely 1893 poem "Spring, Goodbye" by Ed Ruffner, here.
In the next KazanToday: A man who helped save his neighborhood from a fast-moving fire.
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