AURORA, Colo. — A family in Aurora is desperately trying to find a quilt made by their late 98-year-old grandmother after it was mistakenly donated to Goodwill.
Stacey Neal will always cherish her grandmother Lucille.
"She was the strongest woman I know. She absolutely adored her family. Even if you weren't family, when you came into her home, you were automatically family," Neal reminisced.
The 98-year-old passed away on April 21. A couple of days later, the family had to gather her belongings from her Aurora nursing home.
"We had a pile of bags going to Goodwill and a pile of bags that were going home with us. And somehow the quilt got put in the pile that went to Goodwill," Neal said.
That quilt held special value to Neal's mom.
"This was a blanket that my mom and grandma actually made together," she said.
So they've been frantically trying to find it. They have posted online, made flyers, visited the donation center, called Goodwill corporate, and are offering a reward — everything they can think of to get it back in the hands of Neal's mom.
"She's absolutely devastated. She feels a lot of guilt. It would mean so much to her. It would mean the world to her to get it back," she said.
Because of COVID-19, only a few Goodwill stores are open. They've already checked those and are waiting on others to open because it means that much to them.
"Something that never leaves our hands again, and wee will make sure it never mistakenly goes away," she said.
While they'll never get Lucille back, hopefully, they can get back this piece of her she left behind.