When Helen Poniatowski started volunteering at the Sterling Heights Public Library in Michigan, she didn’t think she’d be at the center of a stunning family reunion. It all began on her first day, while she was leafing through a used book. Suddenly, something unexpected slipped out from between its pages: a weathered image of a couple on their wedding day.
“I thought, ‘Oh, what a shame. Here’s this nice wedding photograph and we don’t know anything about it,’” Poniatowski told The Washington Post.
But the photograph did hold one critical clue. When Poniatowski flipped it over, she noticed an inscription that read, “Frank and Josephine Ruggirello—Nana Nono.” A pair of names, she reasoned, would hopefully be enough to bring the picture back to its rightful owner. It didn’t take long for her to pass along her discovery to a colleague, who then brought it to the library’s administration office. Soon after, the “Lost & Found love story,” as the library affectionately called it, was posted on Facebook.
“We were hoping someone might recognize one of the people in the pictures or recognize the last name,” Anneliese White, the library’s public relations and programs coordinator, said.
Miraculously, a childhood friend brought the post to the attention of the couple’s grandchild, Sarah Ruggirello. “[My friend] recognized my last name in it and said, ‘Hey, are these some family members of yours?’” Ruggirello told WXYZ-TV in a recent interview.
Indeed they were. Ruggirello quickly commented: “This is my grandma and grandpa on their wedding day! Would I be able to pick it up? My grandpa passed in 2020 and my grandma in 2023, and I know my family would love to have it.”
According to Ruggirello, Frank and Josephine celebrated their wedding on September 26, 1953, in Detroit. The couple had been married for an astonishing 67 years, and were first-generation Sicilian Americans who raised five children.
“What’s so cool is that my dad and I have never seen this exact photo before,” Ruggirello shares. “We didn’t know this exact photo existed.”
Happily ever after came once Ruggirello visited the Sterling Heights Public Library and, at long last, retrieved the precious family heirloom.
“I was very close to my grandparents,” Ruggirello admits. “We’d go over to their house every Sunday for dinner. My grandma was a great cook and she would make homemade sauce and meatballs. They were just the best grandparents ever.”
It’s unclear who donated the book in which the photograph was found, per the library. That said, it’s routine for volunteers to check books before they’re sold in the library’s used bookstore.
“I think I’m going to frame [the photograph] and display it somewhere in my house, just because this was such a cool story and such a cool thing that happened,” Ruggirello says.
For White’s part, she couldn’t agree more: “This is definitely a solved mystery with a little bit of romance in it for sure. A feel-good story.”
While volunteering at her local library, Helen Poniatowski discovered a lost wedding photo from the 1950s in the pages of a book.
After sharing their story on social media, the library managed to track down and return the photograph to the Ruggirello family.
Sarah Ruggirello recognized her grandparents in the wedding photograph. She quickly commented on Sterling Heights Public Library’s Facebook post.
Sources: Old Wedding Photo Discovered in Library Book Finds Its Way Back to Family: ‘We Didn’t Know This Photo Existed’; Mid-century wedding photo discovered in Sterling Heights library book reunited with family; 1953 wedding photo discovered in library book: ‘Lost & found love story’; Librarian Discovers 72-Year-Old Wedding Photo in Book and Tracks Down Family
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