Jean Skinner has been hoping against hope over the past month.
Skinner, of Galveston, was at a Mardi Gras parade Feb. 22 in the city when she misplaced a bag of Mardi Gras beads. Inside the bag was not only the cheap plastic celebratory necklaces, but something much more valuable: a blue pendant containing ashes from Skinner’s mother, Wanda Ogle.
"It's a glass pendant," Skinner told The Galveston County Daily News. "It was made by an artist and, when they made the pendant, they put my mother's ashes in the glass."
Skinner said it was her first Mardi Gras parade. She ordinarily only wears the pendant to special events she thinks her mother would have enjoyed attending.
The problem started when Skinner became overloaded with colorful beads up to her chin.
"A friend of mine was, like, 'You're drowning in beads," Skinner told the Daily News. "I guess when I took the beads off, the necklace was in there, as well."
In a Facebook post four days after the parade, Skinner wrote that the pile of necklaces was in a white plastic bag that also contained a Trader Joe's bag and an umbrella. She has since posted several times about her loss, including an interview she did with Fox26 in Houston.
Skinner told the Daily News she hopes the bag did not end up among the piles of trash picked up after the parade.
"I just hope that I get it back," she said. "If I don't, I just hope that whoever does have it has more fun and that my mom can go with them."
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