MEMPHIS, Tenn.– We shared a sentimental story Wednesday of a Rhodes college student searching for a missing prom dress purchased by her late father. That dress was found Thursday with a sweet surprise in the box.
“There’s no doubt that the Channel three news channel and your reporting had a strong hand in finding it,” Mrs. Palomar said.
Nola Palomar, an 18-year-old freshman at Rhodes College, is overwhelmed with emotion as she tightly holds this box close to her heart.
“It’s like a magical experience. I don’t know. I can’t even explain how I feel,” Nola said.
Nola’s family has been searching for a blue chiffon dress for two weeks. The special dress was picked out by her father. The two shared this touching moment when she wore the dress on prom night to visit him in hospice days before he died from brain cancer.
Instead of being delivered from Ohio to Rhodes College, it went to a church about 5 minutes away.
“No one, like, really knows what it’s like to lose someone so close until it actually happens. And to go through it at such a young age, there’s not a bunch of memories that I can hold on to,” Nola said.
Less than 12 hours after our story aired, the pastor at First Baptist Church of Memphis alerted us the box mysteriously appeared inside the reception area. Inside the box was the dress along with something Nola is calling a miracle.
At the bottom of the sealed box were these jewel earrings.
“I’ve never seen them in my life, neither has my sister, neither has my mom,” she said.
The church said a custodian found it in the stairwell. But with many unanswered questions, Nola and her mother believe its fate and her father may be in on it.
“I think he had something to do with it,” Nola’s mother said. “It’s just a beautiful ending to such a sad story.”
Planning to follow in her father’s footsteps and one day become a surgeon, Nola says she’s just thankful for the returned memories.
“I’m so glad to have it back, hugged it for a solid 10 minutes,” she said. “I thank whoever had the kindness in their heart to return it because it means so much to me.”
Nola told us the lesson learned in all of this for her is to never mail something you care about.
