ATLANTA — “My mother had my grandmother’s engagement ring, her wedding band and anniversary band, a grandmother’s dinner ring, and then mom’s engagement ring and wedding band and dinner ring.”
“She had hidden them in a decorative pillow that lay on her bed.”
Scott Addaman is on the search for his mother’s valuable, sentimental rings after his mother donated the pillow where she forgot she had hid them.
Barbara Addaman, of Alpharetta, had just had knee replacement surgery when she realized.
She re-did her bedroom before it.
Addaman said his mother’s engagement ring, wedding ring, and a cocktail ring were in the pillow—as well as his grandmother’s engagement ring, wedding ring and anniversary band.
The rings were in the pillow because, Addaman says, his mom had her floors redone and didn’t want to stash her valuables in an obvious location.
“I told her to put it in her safe but she said they would see the safe,” he said.
She stuffed the rings in a decorative, soft sage green with gold paisley print Pottery Barn pillow. The decorative round pillow was never used and often stored somewhere off the bed while she slept.
Having hardwood floors put in the bedroom, she thought the pillow would be a good place to hide the valuables. That was, until she donated it without realizing what she’d left buried inside.
She just noticed last week, after her son had taken it to the only donation center in Roswell. That center distributes to anywhere in north Georgia, Addaman said.
Addaman says he was cleaning out the garage of his mother’s Alpharetta home and it was one of many things they decided to donate to GoodWill last month.
“She kept saying ‘Donate this, donate that, donate this,’” Addaman said. “I kept making donations to GoodWill and included in that pillow were the rings.”
Addaman says he made an estimated 10 trips to the donation center.
“I was moving as well so I kept loading up her car, my car with things we were donated,” he said.
Last week, at about midnight, Addaman got a phone call. It was his mother and she said she remembered where she had put her rings.
“The poor thing didn’t sleep all weekend long, she was so stressed,” Addaman said. “Last Saturday we started calling all the GoodWills and hitting all the GoodWills, and this past week we realized it was probably sold.”
Addaman says he called GoodWill’s regional office and Macon office.
“It was in excellent condition,” he said. “They say it would probably have been sold within a day or two.”
Addaman says someone called him hoping they had the pillow at their location. Turned out, it was the same pattern, but not his mother’s pillow.
The store was selling it for $1.70. That leaves Scott Addaman with little hope he can still find it in a store.
“We’re hoping for a Christmas miracle,” Addaman said. “The best Christmas gift would be to find her this – something that’s already hers.”
“I think the hard part for her was, it was right around the 2-year anniversary of her (mother’s) death,” Addaman said.
Anyone who might have information can contact saddaman@hotmail.com.
He said his mother is offering a reward for finding her family heirlooms.
WSBTV
