N.B. girl gets her ‘lucky rock’ back after it travels 11,000 miles on 4 flights
A New Brunswick girl says she thought her ‘lucky stone’ was gone forever after leaving it on a flight home from BC
But after traveling back and forth thousands of miles, the rock found its way back to 11-year-old Georgia LeMasurier in Fredericton. And it turned out to be valuable.
LeMasurier got the “stone” at a crystal shop in British Columbia, on her way home from the airport with her father and grandmother.
“What struck me is the pile of colorful rocks,” LeMasurier said.
The girl had recently discovered rock tumbling as a hobby after watching online video tutorials, so she saw an opportunity at the Vancouver Crystal Shop. LeMasurier went with a bag full, but an orange rock stood out.
“Once we got it, we started rushing them,” she said.
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“This one had a few holes, but everyone else just broke holes apart, but not this one. And then it became my lucky rock.”
She carried it with her everywhere, including her trip back to the Maritimes. In mid-flight, LeMasurier took out the stone to hold on to, fell asleep, and forgot about it when she woke up to descend in Halifax.
Ironically, the day she lost her “lucky stone” was Friday the 13th (in January).
The plane that took her to Halifax had already departed for London, UK when the family returned to the airport to look for it.
“I went all over the airport asking if people couldn’t find it. I thought I would never see it again.
“I might have cried a bit,” she said with a smile.
Her mother, Erica Henderson, filed a report of the loss.
“I thought, ‘This is the dumbest thing ever,’ but it’s my daughter’s lucky charm,” Henderson said.
On Sunday, January 21, she received a call and test from a number in Nova Scotia, and it turned out to be an Air Canada employee.
“She said, ‘Did your daughter lose a stone?’ I said ‘yes’ and she sent me a picture,'” Henderson said.
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Henderson received this photo from an Air Canada employee who was following up on her lost property report. Submitted by Erica Henderson
“I was just stunned.”
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The “incredible” adventure of a rock
Georgia was still asleep at the time, so Henderson wanted to get all the facts before waking her up with the good news.
“So the rock had gone from Vancouver to Halifax, to England, to Toronto and then back to Halifax,” said Henderson, who told her what constitutes more than 11,000 miles in the air from the Air Canada employee.
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“The man who found it, he was cleaning the plane, saw this little rock and put it in his pocket.
“At one point he pulled it out of his pocket and thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool.’ He called his friend who is a geologist… and the geologist[said]’That’s not a rock, that’s a piece of petrified amber.’”
The International Colored Gemstone Association says amber, a gold-colored fossilized pine resin, is typically around 25 to 50 million years old, but it can be much older.
It’s “ancient and valuable, like an antique from history,” the website said.
Henderson was stunned to learn what Georgia’s “Lucky Rock” really was, having never seen it before.
“It’s incredible,” Henderson said. “Who submits a notice of loss of a stone? And then who finds a rock and says, ‘Oh, that must be something,’ you know?”
According to the mother, Air Canada said they would FedEx it to her home in Fredericton, so she went straight away to wake up her daughter. She took in the surprise.
Georgia said she always knew her “rock of luck” was different than the rest.
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“I knew from the start it was special, but I never knew it was amber,” LeMasurier said.
Georgia LeMesurier’s mother filmed her opening the package containing her amber jewel. Facebook / Erica Henderson
She said it was nice to know someone made an effort to bring her stone back.
“I was really happy that there are still some really good people in the world because it’s been pretty downhill,” joked the 11-year-old.
As a mother, Henderson was also grateful.
“I was so thankful for the man who picked it up and whoever brought it back to Halifax Airport. … It’s been through a lot of hands to get back to where it was,” she said.
“It’s nice when good people do good and get nothing (in return).”
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Though the family now owns a valuable little piece of history, LaMasurier still calls it their “lucky rock.”
“She doesn’t even want to have it appraised. She doesn’t care what it costs,” Henderson said.
“There’s no point in having it appraised if it doesn’t sell,” added LaMasurier.
Unless it’s worth a $50 million lottery, the girl said, it will always just be her lucky stone.
