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Wallet lost for 65yrs returned to owner's family

Posted at 6:19 PM, May 16, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-17 09:32:14-04

Paul Aswad and his son Paul Jr. have been renovating an old building. As they dug around in the ceiling a wallet tumbled out.

Paul Jr. says that at first he thought it belonged to someone on the site but quickly ruled that out. "We started thumbing through it and it was amazing."

Inside the wallet, father and son discovered documents including a Social Security card, auto insurance, receipts and personal photos for a man named Early Kirbis all dating back to the 1940s and 50s. It appeared that the wallet had been lost since about 1951.

After a little internet detective work they found out that Earl passed away in December 2014 at the age of 88.

They set up a get together for a handful of surviving family members, including Earl's granddaughters, as well as his two youngest daughters, Margie and Maureen. No one is quite sure how Earl lost the wallet, but according to Margie it must have happened the same year that Earl married Rosie and began a 65 year marriage together that produced 11 children and 30 grandchildren.

With the wallet now in the family's possession, they plan to make photocopies of all the contents and share it with all the family members. They think Earl would have liked that.