Man finds rosary, returns it to woman who first got it 74 years ago

A rosary has found its way back to a woman after she first received it 74 years ago, when she was a 7-year-old girl in New Jersey.

Daniel Jurgens, 64, chanced upon the sterling silver rosary on May 15 while in the midst of his metal detecting hobby, nj.com reported Wednesday, May 27. His sleuthing and internet research reunited the rosary with its owner, 81-year-old Diana Borja.

While metal detecting in a New Jersey park, Jurgens found a silver compact that had an image of the Virgin Mary nine inches underground. Inside the compact was a rosary with the name “Diana” and the date May 5, 1946.

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He reached out to a church close to where he found the rosary, the Our Lady of Peace Church in Edison. The church secretary confirmed with him after three days that a girl named Diana Antonides had her first communion on the date inscribed on the rosary.

Jurgens looked up her name online and discovered that Diana had lived three blocks from the church. He also found out that she married a certain Salvador Borja in 1958. Unfortunately, searching “Diana Borja” was of no help, but looking up “Salvador Borja” led him to her husband’s obituary.

Jurgens took note of the funeral home and the names of Salvador’s children. He got in touch with the funeral home, which was hundreds of miles away in Clinton, Iowa. After a few days, one of Diana’s sons called him.

“He said he’ll ask his mom and he’ll get back to me, and then the daughter called me back and it turns out that 81-year-old Diana, still alive, lives in Clinton County, Iowa,” Jurgens said in the report.

Jurgens mailed the rosary to Iowa on May 22 and has received gratitude from the family. “Thanks so much for all you did to track us down! Mom is very happy that you found her rosary, it was a gift from her godmother,” Diana’s daughter told him in a message.

The rosary is finally back with Diana, as seen in Jurgens’s Facebook post on Thursday, May 28.

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Diana confirmed with nj.com that she attended school at Our Lady of Peace, and that she had never thought she’d see the rosary again. JB

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