the jenni chronicles

In the early 1980′s Chris’s older brother Michael was cleaning the attic of an empty building in LaHabra California. Among the dust and spider webs he came across an old steamer trunk. The construction company he was working for was just going to discard it in the dumpster so Mike adopted it and took it home with him. When he opened it he discovered old photos, war memorabilia, and clothing and it became apparent that this trunk was full of some family’s personal belongings.  How it ended up in the attic of a business was a mystery.

Over the years the trunk traveled with Chris and Mike’s family and after failed attempts to find the owners of the trunk, the contents slowly dwindled.  Some of the things were sold, or given away and some things were put away for safe keeping.  Chris’s mother couldn’t bear to throw anything away with the hope that one of these days she would find the family and be able to return these things.  Then when Chris’s mom passed away the items went into his care and have traveled with him since.

I remember when I moved to Denver in ’07 to be with him, Chris was still working through some of his mother’s belongings and I helped him sell, or donate what he didn’t want to keep.  His mother kept everything, collections of old school papers, Christmas ornaments, and candles; we worked through boxes and boxes. Then he brought down a big Rubbermaid storage box one day and told me the story of Mike, and how he found the steamer trunk.  I looked through the box with fascination; there were photographs that dated back to the mid 1800′s! We decided to keep looking for the owner and packed up the box.

Flash forward to Fall of 2008.  Chris and I have moved to another house in Denver and have pulled things out of storage to give to goodwill.  Again we come across the box.  What should we do with it?  I can’t bear to give it away and Chris just hasn’t had the time to research.  I decide I need a project so I took the box up to my office and started our new quest…finding the family.

I unloaded the box onto our guest bed and started reading newspapers, yearbooks, report cards, and letters from the box.  I wrote down a list of names and the last name Scholl kept reappearing.  I tried to Google the name and it came up with “Results 1 – 10 of about 388,000,000 for Scholl family” Whoa! I went through the pictures and memorial records and found one name in particular was reoccurring a lot; Elizabeth Jo Scholl.  So I narrowed it down to the high schools from the year books and the location the box was found and began my hunt.

The high schools were still around so I wrote in to their alumni club.  The colleges were online as well and soon I was writing to Historical societies and community archival projects around the areas in California that were mentioned on paperwork in the box.  I sent out about 20 emails the first day, but got no responses.  In one weekend I sent out about 35 before hitting a dead end in the online search.  No wonder it had taken so many years for Chris’s mom to figure all this out.

I had just about given up again when I got an email in early December from The Lomita History Project in Lomita, CA.

“Jenni,

Thank you for contacting the Lomita Historical Society.  We too would like to help you find any members of the Scholl family.  I will put the word out and let you know next week if we get any hits.  Does it mention possible family members in the announcement you wrote about?”

I was so excited to hear from anyone interested in helping! So I wrote back immediately with Betty Jo’s name in particular and the high school names and areas where I thought she may have lived.  About two weeks later I got this:

“Jenni,

We gave Betty Jo your phone number.  Please let us know if you do not hear from her.

Steve”

Oh my gosh! Did they really find her?  I was really getting excited now.  Have we finally found the true owners of the box? I wonder how old she was? I wonder if she will even remember losing these things? I sat back and waited not so patiently for her to call.  She called about a week later and was not amused. She was really confused as to how a girl in Denver somehow has a box full of her family’s things from over 20 years ago in California.  I started to explain by asking her questions.  If she went to this high school, did she live in this town, was she a nurse…low and behold her wall started to come down.  Yes! She answered every question and now I could hear the laughter in her voice.

She told me of her husband and how he owned a few buildings in the LaHabra area where they lived in the 1970′s….explains why the boxes were in that attic, they must have been left behind somehow in their move.  She mentioned she had six children, and that her husband had passed away a couple of years ago.  I wondered if the WWII uniform in the box was his? I was too shy to ask.  We exchanged conversation for a few minutes and I told her that I would love to send her the box, so that she could have her things back.  She gave me her address; her last name had changed since she married. I said goodbye and hoped she would call me when she received the box.

I packed everything up and put in a little letter from me with a picture of Chris and I with the story of how we came to be in the possession of her things.  Chris sent it off in the mail the next day.

At the beginning of February 2009, Betty called.  I was at work so she left a message in a small little gravelly voice…

“Hi Jenni this is Betty. I received the box and I was just thrilled to death, I’m sorry I haven’t called you sooner but I’ve been sick, and I’ve got laryngitis now. I just wanted to tell you what a wonderful thing that was for you to hunt me down and send it to me and I want to send you something and I will as soon as I feel a little bit better.  But I went through it and there’s a picture of me when I was 9 months old, and that was my brother’s uniform, and my oldest sons baby shoes.  And it just is wonderful that you were so thoughtful to send it to me. I’ll keep in contact with you ok? Thanks again Jenni”

It made me cry to hear it.  I even played the message on speaker for all the girls at work who knew the story, and it made them cry too.  I was so happy she finally had her things back.  Finally they had a home, and that made me feel so great.  I hope that her children will be able to enjoy marveling over the pictures as much as we did.  What a fun project that was.  And it made me feel very fulfilled to have carried out one of Chris’s moms wishes.  It was truly her project to begin with after all.  I wish she was here to share this story with me.

Two weeks ago, I received a package from Harry and David and I couldn’t not find a card inside. Who was it from?  Finally when we unpacked it I found a little note on the outside of the box that read “You are truly a special person.  Thank you for reuniting me with my past.  Love Betty Jo.”

I hope to keep in touch with Betty Jo.  This has been such a special story, and I will always keep her near my heart.  I hope to speak with her soon.  Maybe then I will have more stories to share!

You can see the pictures here

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(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•. jenni