Soldier's World War II bracelet returned to Georgia family 70 years later

Joseph Stowe, who served in the U.S. Army during World War II, is pictured here with his wife, Bonnie. (WAGA-TV)

A World War II soldier's gift to his wife -- a small sweetheart bracelet lost for some 70 years -- is now in the hands of his family in Georgia.

Ron Stowe's father, Joe, who died 20 years ago, served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Iceland during the war.

The younger Stowe, who lives in Gainesville, Ga., recently received an unusual message from a stranger -- an 80-year-old British woman who claimed to have a bracelet belonging to his father.

The gold, linked bracelet -- with his father's name engraved on the front and his name and his mother's on the back -- had been in the woman's possession for years, Stowe told Fox affiliate WAGA-TV.

(WAGA-TV)

Stowe, whose mother died two years ago, said he had no knowledge of the bracelet's existence. He said the British woman, identified as Audrey Jackson, had somehow received the bracelet from her father, who served in the British Royal Air Force and who was also stationed in Iceland during the war.

Some 70 years later, Jackson used the Internet to track down Stowe's family.

"The bracelet has been in my family since the war," Jackson wrote to Stowe.

"I don't know how my father came to have it, but as a child I do remember him saying that it belonged to an American," Jackson said.

"It didn't have any sentimental value to her, but she said she couldn't bring herself to throw it away," Stowe told the station.

When the bracelet finally arrived in the mail, Stowe said he was overwhelmed by memories of his late father -- and the bracelet he never knew about.

"He was just about to go to England and the invasion of Normandy," recalled Stowe.

"I was wondering what went through his mind. Did he wonder, 'Will this be the last thing I'll send to my wife?'" he said.

Stowe treasures the bracelet as a piece of history -- and his father -- and plans to pass it down to his own son and grandson someday.

"They'll look at it and remember the story and remember World War II," he said.