RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR)--Cathy Tyree was just on hunt for an old couch.
“What can you find? Apparently everything. We'd been wandering around looking at things,” she said.
“We’d probably been here 15-20 minutes."
During her time at an antique mall on Midlothian Turnpike she discovered more than just loose change hidden a cushion.
“I don’t even remember. I was almost speechless,” said Tyree.
She was perusing the aisles; filled with glassware, furniture and old books. “I came through this little area and something caught my eye."
Tyree didn’t stumble upon a Picasso or priceless jewel. No, she discovered something even more precious.
“And when I went to look at it, it was a picture of my father."
Right in the middle of the framed picture from the 1950s stood Louis Tyree, a veteran of WWII, Korea and Viet Nam. It was Tyree’s late dad.
“We would always tease about when Dad was getting his picture taken.”
Louis passed away at the age of 51 in 1976. A man she sorely misses - still.
"He was larger than life. He enjoyed his family. He enjoyed a good time,” she said.
How much did she pay the treasure? “Oh it was a big one. It was eight dollars.”
This story doesn’t end with a daughter’s eureka moment.
“The last thing you expect to find is a picture of someone who has been gone so long,” she said.
How did her father’s belongings land on shelves in an Antique store? Tyree lost her home in a foreclosure a few years ago. Her father’s trunk stuffed with photos was auctioned off.
“He’d be mad at me for losing them. I had a really bad feeling about locating the trunk and
I really tried not to think about it.”
Now Tyree is trying to reclaim the pieces of her father’s past."
"He was into family so he’d be glad they are coming back into our hands.
Tyree’s advice to anyone who loses something so valued?
“Keep your eyes open you just don’t know what you’re going to find. You really don’t”
