CHARMED

It was gone for good, thought Ruthe Harshman.

Lost in Switzerland, perhaps. Or a hotel room in Sacramento.

Her charm bracelet – a beloved piece of jewelry containing decades of memories – disappeared 20 years ago, but the avid traveler couldn’t quite remember where.

Gone was the sombrero charm from her first visit to Texas. The two keepsakes from the birth of her grandchildren. The tiny Riverfront Park clock tower leftover from Expo ‘74.

Also gone was the silver heart engraved with “Bob loves Ruthe” given by her second husband on their first Valentine’s Day together.

There were more than 20 charms in all.

Harshman, 79, continued to collect charms, but she never bought another bracelet.

Now, thanks to National Public Radio – not to mention the woman who discovered the bracelet in her own luggage 20 years ago – Harshman and her favorite piece of jewelry were finally reunited this week.

It all began with an essay that aired earlier this month on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Commentator Bob Greene told listeners about Mary Christensen of Robins, Iowa, and the charm bracelet she found in her bag in May 1987 after a trip to Europe. While going through a checkpoint at London’s Heathrow Airport, Christensen recalled how security had taken items out of carry-on bags and placed them on the table before putting them back. When she returned to Iowa, Christensen found the bracelet along with other jewelry in her luggage. She called British Airways, but the airlines told her there was no way to track down the owner.

Two decades later, as she was cleaning out a bedroom closet, Christensen re-discovered the bracelet and wondered about the woman who once wore the heavy bangle.

“Older now, she knows how much it must mean to someone, at least how much it must have meant,” Greene said in his radio commentary. “The small immortal episodes of a life, that’s what charms on a bracelet represent. … Out in Robins, Iowa, population 2,500, Mary Christensen is hoping someone somewhere hears these words. The lasting moments of our lives, the ones that linger, don’t necessarily make the headlines. Sometimes they dangle from a bracelet.

“Ruthe, with an ‘e,’ if you’re out there, your memories are waiting.”

Indeed she was – in Spokane, her hometown for the last 57 years. Unfortunately, she wasn’t listening to the radio.

But luckily for Harshman, the commentary caught the attention of a friend of her grandson’s wife.

Greene told listeners about two of the charms: a profile of a boy with the name “Mark” engraved on it along with the date, “July 2, 1974,” and another of a girl with the name “Marcie” and the date “January 25, 1972.”

The listener in Olympia called Jennifer Schreck, wife of Mark, Harshman’s grandson.

“I just got goosebumps,” Schreck told NPR’s Michelle Norris, who did a follow-up story that aired May 11. “I knew it was Grandma Ruthe’s bracelet.”

Norris of “All Things Considered” then put both Christensen and Harshman on the air.

“How did you find out?” a surprised Harshman asked after Christensen introduced herself and told her about the bracelet in her luggage. “For heaven’s sake. … They meant nothing to you. And the world to me.”

As she listened to Christensen’s efforts to track down the bracelet’s owner, Harshman broke into tears.

“It was very touching,” she said later, recalling that initial conversation. “I was crying so hard when Mary was telling me this. I just couldn’t believe it was being returned.”

Each charm, after all, is a memento of her life – of trips to Hawaii, Canada and Europe; of her late husband, Bob, his banjo playing and their shared passion for music; of their decades-long involvement with Shriners Children’s Hospital, a place where Harshman continues to volunteer every week.

“They were my memories,” said Harshman, a retired dental assistant who has two children, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. “So instead of buying another bracelet, I just groused about the one I lost for 20 years.”

Since they were introduced on the radio, Christensen and Harshman have talked on the phone or e-mailed each other almost every day. Christensen plans to visit Spokane in the coming year. Harshman wants to spend time in Robins, Iowa. They’ve even exchanged family photos.

The charm bracelet arrived in the mail on Tuesday morning, just in time for Harshman to wear it to a luncheon. It came in a box the size of a small shoebox along with another silver bracelet, a gold brooch in the shape of a four-leaf clover, several stickpins and three empty jewelry boxes. All these items ended up in Christensen’s luggage 20 years ago, but only the bracelets belong to Harshman. She’s not quite sure what to do with the rest.

When she and Christensen first spoke on the phone earlier this month, talk of recovering her bracelet reminded Harshman of a few other items she lost on that fateful trip back from Europe.

So when they got off the air, she quickly asked Christensen: “By the way, did you find my cameras, too?”