An Arizona woman got more than she bargained for when she bought a VCR at her local Goodwill store.
Destinee Johnson tells PEOPLE she bought the VCR — which also had a mystery tape inside — on Monday, Dec. 2.
“When I got everything ready at home, I decided to watch the video out of curiosity,” she says. Then she was introduced to a little boy named Christopher.
The tape, which she has since watched dozens of times, contained 14 minutes of home videos that showed Christopher opening presents and spending time with his family on Christmas morning, according to local independent station KTVK and CBS affiliate KPHO-TV.
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“It started a few days before Christmas showing a snowy yard and then moved on [Christopher] playing with mom in the snow,” she tells PEOPLE. “I thought it was super cute. And then it cut again, it was Christmas morning and Chris was coming down the stairs to get the presents.”
The video also showed important milestones in Christopher’s life, such as meeting his newborn brother for the first time, Johnson added.
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The mom says something about the video “made me tear up a little bit” because there’s a boy about the same age as Chris in the video.
Speaking from experience, Johnson says that after her grandfather’s death in 2021, she found that watching his old tapes really helped the family cope with their grief.
“That experience plays a big role in my attempt to bring him back to my family,” she adds.
Destinee Johnson with her husband Kyle and their two children.
Courtesy of Destinee Johnson
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According to KTVK/KPHO-TV, Johnson contacted the Goodwill store in Mesa to see if they had any knowledge of the VCR’s origin, but due to the store’s large influx of donations, they don’t know exactly where it came from.
Now she’s even using social media to spread the word about her special discovery.
“I decided to post about it in a local group, hoping that in case this was accidentally donated, the family would see it and I could return it,” she tells PEOPLE. “It kind of took off from there.”
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But while she hasn’t been successful yet, Johnson says “it would mean a lot to give this back to the family because these are memories that belong to them.”
“They are well documented,” she adds. “It would be really cool to see Chris on Christmas.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education