Returned! Brick Woman Gets Back Irreplacable Sea Glass Necklace

BRICK, NJ — When Kathy Williams and Scott Greenwald say "I do" on the beach in Bay Head Sept. 8, Kathy's "something blue" will be a precious piece of sea glass that she and Scott found on the beach there.

The cobalt blue piece of glass has been returned to her, thanks to the power of social media.

Twenty-four hours after Kathy lost her necklace at the Lakewood BlueClaws game, it was back in her possession.

"My beautiful sea glass pendant has been returned to me," Kathy said in a Facebook post Saturday night. "Jill Evans, I can’t thank you enough for finding it and returning it to me."

Kathy was wearing the pendant Friday night when she and her fiance, Scott, went to the Lakewood BlueClaws game. Suddenly she realized it was gone, apparently fallen off her neck. They retraced their steps and found the rope portion of the necklace but no sign of the pendant.

"It was going to be my 'something blue' on my wedding day," Kathy said Friday night, as she sought help in finding it. Their wedding on Sept. 8 is a second chance at love in a life that has had its share of challenges. Kathy lost her beloved first husband, Fred, to cancer in 2014 after 21 years of marriage. The loss was crushing.

"For two years I didn't date," Kathy said. "I said no to everyone who asked me out."

Then one day, while escorting some of her special needs clients on an outing to the McDonald's at Walmart in Brick — a trip she made often with the group — she met Scott. "He would make my iced coffee," and flirt with her. She flirted back.

Then one day she didn't see him at McDonald's when she stopped in. Scott had left, and she did not know where he'd gone. A couple months later, he was back. He had left for another job, one that didn't work out. So he came back to the McDonald's, she said.

"I told him I had missed him," Kathy said, and from then on, they always looked for each other. Eventually, "we went out on a date and talked for hours," she said. "We really hit it off. That led to further dates, often involving collecting sea glass on the beach — a passion they shared.

"We were competitive" about the sea glassing, Kathy said, and one day they stumbled on a beautiful blue bit in the sand on the beach in Bay Head, their favorite spot. Kathy wanted it. Scott said no. "Blue is too rare," he told her. On May 31, 2017, he asked Kathy to be his girlfriend and gave her a necklace: the blue sea glass they'd found in Bay Head.

"I do feel like he was my second chance," Kathy said. That's why she was planning to wear it when they tie the knot on the beach in Bay Head.

That's why the bit of cobalt blue sea glass is so important to her. And why she was so heartbroken to have lost it Friday night.

And why she and Scott were overjoyed Saturday evening when they met up with Jill so she could return it to them. The next step, Kathy said, will be taking it to a friend who will be putting it on a new silver chain for her to wear on her wedding day.

It may not be a diamond, but the piece of sea glass holds something far more precious: a couple's love.

Jill Evans posted her find on the Brick Patch Facebook page:

"A big thank you for posting my heartbreaking story on the Patch, a big thank you to all my friends and their friends who helped my story to go viral and aided in my heart being returned to me," Kathy said. "And finally a big thank you to my best friend, my soul mate my husband to be.....for helping me to have faith that it would be ok and for loving me the way you do."

"And also I don’t want to forget to thank all the very special people who reached out to me and offered to make me a new pendant," Kathy said. "My faith in this world and in people has been restored, there are good souls left in this world ..... and just in case, thank you Saint Anthony for returning what was lost!"

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Photos by Kathy Williams, published with permission