Geri Adelmann never imagined that a week after visiting Ozzies Furnishing, St. Vincent de Paul's boutique thrift store, for the first time, she would find herself returning a long-lost treasure to members of a family from Iowa.
Geri, who works at SVdP, was taking a customary retail operations tour for employees when she saw an old book hiding between dozens of others and said she was immediately attracted to it. The book, published in 1906, was titled “The Manual of the Holy Catholic Church” and had a handwritten imprimatur, an official license from the Church, by James Quigley, then Archbishop of Chicago. As a collector of old, rare books, Geri knew she needed to have it.
“As soon as I saw it, I knew it was coming home with me,” she said. “I just didn’t have any idea what I would find inside it.”
The next morning, as she was going through the book, Geri found pieces of paper the original owner had left in between the pages. One of them was tucked in a page of the book that allows you to record your family history.
There, Geri found out who the owner of the book was: Helen Blitsch. Helen and her husband John had recorded the birth of their children and 11 grandchildren, but the book held even more pieces to the puzzle of the Blitsch family as Geri found the receipt for John's headstone and the information of the cemetery.
The cemetery is located in a small town in Iowa called Black Hawk, the same county Geri was born in.
“That was the first connection,” she said. “I decided with all of this information, that the book wasn’t mine to keep and that I needed to find the family and return it.”
Geri was on a mission. She started researching the Blitsch name online and could only find family members who had passed away, many of whom were buried in the same cemetery as John. When she couldn’t find anyone who was alive, she called the County Recorder’s Office in Black Hawk and the person who answered happened to know John Richard, Helen and John’s grandson.
“I called John Richard, who is 75, immediately and left a message explaining the situation,” she said. “He called back and we talked for a while about his family. I can’t say how thrilled he was to hear the news.”
While on the phone, John Richard asked Geri where she was calling from. When she said Phoenix, he could not believe it. He told Geri his sister was in town visiting some in-laws.
Sally Anne, John Richard’s sister, called Geri that same day and asked if they could meet. When Geri asked where Sally Anne was located, she responded she was visiting with her relative, Xavier College Preparatory principal Sister Joan Fitzgerald. In Geri's words, that was the second connection, as she knows Sister Joan well and all three of Geri's daughters attended Xavier.
“I told her ‘I don’t want anything for it. I am just glad that I get to be part of this,’” Geri said.
Sally Anne asked where they could meet and when Geri mentioned she works at St. Vincent de Paul, she told her she frequently volunteers at her local SVdP in Iowa and asked to see our main campus in Phoenix.
A couple of days later, Geri met Sally Anne, her husband and her cousin and delivered the book.
“As soon as Sally Anne saw it, she kissed the book and said ‘Oh, grandma!’” Geri said. “She just held it like it was a treasure.”
Since then, Geri has received six Thank you cards from family members letting her know how important the book is to their family.
Sally Anne said she was very surprised when her brother called her to tell her about the book, but she couldn’t be happier.
“Our grandma moved to Arizona when I was a little girl, so I can’t tell you how wonderful it felt to have just a little bit of her,” she said. “Just looking at her writing on the book, I felt so moved.”
Her brothers and sisters back home were all happy to hear the news and asked her to bring that piece of grandma back home.
“Geri could have kept the book and cherished it herself, but instead she chose to reach out and show compassion,” Sally Anne said. “I truly felt like God helped and like the Holy Spirit was acting through Geri. I cannot tell you how much this means to me and to my whole family.”
To get #MondayMorningMercy in your inbox every week, subscribe to our Newsletter here .
