When Lauren Thompson Miller found a wedding album floating in the flood waters from Buffalo Bayou in Houston, she didn't simply toss it out with the tons of ruined items now clogging Houston streets. Instead, she decided to return it.
Videos by Wide Open Country
Miller found the album in a friend's backyard, and although many of the pictures are water damaged, some still have faces smiling out from them. So Miller took to Facebook to see if anyone she knew could identify the people in the album, in hopes to return it to its owner.
"Yesterday, someone's wedding album came floating down Buffalo Bayou and we fished it out of my friend's backyard (which is still underwater)," Miller wrote. "If you recognize the people in the wedding photos, please let me know. The baby photos of their first child - a Natalie Claire born in 1994 - are in this album as well. It's obviously water logged and a lot of photos were damaged, but I'm sure that they would want it back!"
Less than 12 hours later, the albums owner, Margaret M. Chong Chenier commented on the post, which has now been shared over 3,000 times.
"Yippee!!" Chenier commented, "Thanks Melanie Westerfield Cizik that's my photo album. Got to love social media." Chenier went on to explain that the wedding photo featured is her brother and her sister in law, and that the baby is hers. "Today I have been drying pics all day," she explained. "Have lost much. Love you. Will collect in the coming days."
Though Harvey finally stopped pouring rain on Houston, much of the flood waters have still not receded. The digital age has made it so that many of our pictures are safe from flood waters online. However, photo albums of events that occurred before online hosting are, for the most part, irreplaceable. Thanks to one kind woman, this family has at least some of those memories back now.
