A Chatham mother has been reunited with her son's ashes, thanks to social media.
Maddie Martin's son Oliver passed away in 2023. His ashes were put in a pendant that she'd been hanging around her neck ever since.
What started as a typical weekend visiting different places across Chatham turned into a nightmare when Martin realized the pendant was missing.
"When you wear jewelry all the time, you don't necessarily notice that it's there. On Sunday, I sat down and was talking to someone, and I reached for it and it was gone," she explained.
After tearing up her home trying to find it, Martin decided to go on Facebook and ask if anyone had seen it. She also reached out to Rikki Ashton, the owner of Sweet C's Cookie Creations, since she had visited her business the day she lost the pendant.
Despite not finding it, Ashton was determined to help Martin and made a post on Sweet C's Facebook page.
"We reached 250 shares overnight, and in the early morning, I received a message from a gentleman who informed me he had found it," Ashton explained.
That man was Kevin Karman. He was with his wife and daughter at a local park when he found the pendant.
"(My daughter) was on the swing. I was pushing her and something shiny caught my eye," said Karman.
The first thing he noticed after picking up the pendant was the engraved name "Oliver Alexander". Since he didn't know anybody in the neighbourhood with that name, he decided to hold onto it in the hope of finding its owner.
After a couple of days, Karman's wife told him that she knew who owned the pendant.
"I'm just waking up and she tells me, 'we had an angel sleeping with us for a couple of days and we didn't even know it.' That confused me. I thought she was trying to tell me that we were having a guest sleepover, but then she told me that the necklace belonged to a mother," he explained.
It was then that he was shown the post on Sweet C's Facebook page. Karman and Ashton quickly connected, with Ashton giving him Martin's contact information.
"I kept it together until I called (Karman) and he said 'I found your necklace' and I just started crying," said Martin.
She had visited the park where Karman found the pendant. She was there with her family since her mother-in-law lived nearby. After the call, Karman rushed over to the mother-in-law's place to give her the pendant.
"I was just happy that I could reunite mother and son," he added.
Martin and Ashton also spoke after the ordeal had ended. The two shared a special moment when talking about where the pendant was found.
"We both cried and told one another that (Oliver) just wasn’t ready to leave the park yet. Instead, he went for a playdate and then returned home safe," said Ashton.
Now that Martin has had time to digest everything that happened, she wanted to thank everyone who helped.
"I'm thankful for the community, I'm thankful for everyone who thought of me. All the compassion that everyone had to give... it reminds you that there are good people out there," she said.
