NEED TO KNOW
A wedding photo was found in a book donated on Saturday, May 31, to the Stirling Heights Public Library in Michigan
Sarah Ruggirello recognized the people in the photo as her grandparents Frank and Josephine Ruggirello
The couple wed on Sept. 26, 1953 in Detroit and were married for 67 years
A woman was reunited with a precious memory from the past — all thanks to a library volunteer.
A wedding photo featuring a couple in their wedding attire posing along two others was found by the volunteer inside of a book donated on Saturday, May 31, at Stirling Heights Public Library in Michigan, according to WXYZ-TV.
As soon as the volunteer spotted it, they worked to reunite the old photo with the family who it belonged to. Luckily the photo held a clue as to who was in it, as written on the back of it were the words: “Frank and Josephine Ruggirello — Nana Nono,” per the outlet.
The photo — both back and front — was posted online on Facebook in the hopes that someone who saw the post would be able to identify who it belonged to.
“We posted, ‘Lost & Found love story,’ ” Anneliese White of the Stirling Heights Public Library, told WXYZ-TV. “We were hoping someone might recognize one of the people in the pictures or recognize the last name.”
Sterling Heights Public Library/Facebook
Sarah Ruggirello comment with the Sterling Heights Public Library saying it is her Grandma and Grandpa in the photo that was found in a book at the library.
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They eventually got a taker. Sarah Ruggirello told the outlet that the post was brought to her attention by a childhood friend who tagged her in the post and wrote, “Hey, are these some family members of yours?”
Sarah said she recognized the wedding couple in the photo as her grandparents Frank and Josephine Ruggirello, who were married on Sept. 26, 1953 in Detroit. She wrote on Facebook: “This is my grandma and grandpa on their wedding day! Would I be able to pick it up?”
She added, “My grandpa passed in 2020 and my grandma passed in 2023, and I know my family would love to have [the photo].”
“I was very close to my grandparents,” Sarah told WXYZ-TV, adding that her grandparents had been married for 67 years. “My whole family, my brother and cousins and I have just such fond memories of them growing up.”
“We’d go over to their house every Sunday for Sunday dinner and my grandma was a great cook and she would make homemade sauce and meatballs and they were just the best grandparents ever,” she added.
The library set up a time and place to exchange the photo with Sarah, and she excitedly thanked White who handed over the photo. She shared with WXYZ-TV: “What’s so cool is we’ve never seen — my dad and I — have never seen this exact photo before. We didn’t know this exact photo existed.”
As for where she plans to put the photo, she shared, “I think now I’m going to frame it and display it somewhere in my house just because this was such a cool story and such a cool thing that happened.”
The library noted that it was unclear who donated the book and that it was routine for volunteers to check books before they are sold in the library’s used bookstore. As for how they would describe the wedding photo reunion, White said: “This is definitely a solved mystery with a little bit of romance in it for sure. A feel-good story.”
Read the original article on People
