The hallowed halls of schools are filled with memories. Some stories live on from generation to generation, and sometimes there are hidden surprises. This was the case recently at a school in League City, Texas, when a purse that had been lost for decades was discovered during a renovation.
The simple handbag was filled with what are now considered artifacts but were once a part of everyday life. It's a time capsule of sorts that has finally found its way back home.
The purse was discovered under a stage.
The League City Historical Society was converting an old school building into a community center over the summer when a worker found the purse under a stage while replacing the floors, according to a video posted on the Clear Creek Independent School District Facebook page. "Buried inside the walls of the old building was a memento stuck in time," the video says.
Items filled the purse, including handkerchiefs, a nail file, calendar, and a comb. Everything inside the bag told the story of a young girl's life, complete with a diary and photos.
The historical society pieced together information about the owner.
After inspecting the bag and its contents, historical society officials believed that the bag belonged to a woman named Beverly Williams. One of the photos inside was marked 1946. It was a photo of Williams at 9-and-a-half-months-old.
It was deduced that she was the youngest of four sisters and her father's name was Frank, as her mother signed a note inside the bag Mrs. Frank Williams.
How did the purse get lost?
League City Historical Society President Richard Lewis wonders how the purse got lost in the first place.
"How can a crack in the floorboards be wide enough for a whole purse to go down there and get completely lost? And never discovered yet?" he questioned.
A calendar in the bag is dated 1959, which means the bag had been missing for 63 years. Although district officials believed that the bag belonged to Williams and that she was connected to Clear Creek ISD, they could not find her in any of the district's yearbooks.
Clear Creek ISD posted a video to social media to help find the purse's owner.
The historical society gathered that Williams would be about 76 years old today. It released a Facebook video revealing the purse's contents in the hopes of finding her. On October 10, KHOU announced that William's family had been located.
Unfortunately, Williams died in 2016. She was the mother of nine children, two of whom still live in League City. Unbelievably, the family said the purse was found around October 5, which would have been Williams' 76th birthday.
Lewis said Williams' daughter "was blown away with what we told her," according to the Houston Chronicle.
The bag is certainly a treasure and a wonderful peek into days gone by.
"The purse was full of what looked like a wallet, and it turned out to be a diary," Lewis shared. "Picture it as today's Facebook: you're putting everything down. She wrote about her love life, who she broke up with."
Life was simpler many years ago. Instead of carrying an electronic device with the world at their fingertips, people brought the most intimate parts of themselves with them daily.
Williams' purse is a reminder that life moves fast and there is always change on the horizon. It also shows you never know what history might be waiting for you to discover.
