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WEST VALLEY CITY — Relics of a soldier's past are now back with his family after ending up at a thrift store.
Brenda Monson, a history teacher at West Lake Junior High School, bought the old, locked suitcase at a Deseret Industries store over the summer. She recently shared the contents of the suitcase with her students during a Veterans Day lesson.
The soldier’s family didn’t know they had thrown out the suitcase until they heard about it on KSL-TV.
"He was pretty quiet,” Afton Andrews said. “He wasn't a very outgoing person."
She’s talking about James Williams Andrews, her brother-in-law, who served in the military during World War II and died in 2002.
"It's their family history,” Monson said. “It's their history, and it's way cool."
The students pored over pictures, documents and uniforms found in the suitcase.
"I think my favorite pictures are, of course, the Iwo Jima Island,” Monson said.
And when Andrews heard about the story Nov. 11, “I was so excited about that,” she said. “I thought it couldn’t have happened in a better way.”
She was both elated and surprised that her brother-in-law kept so many memories in that old, locked suitcase.
"All those years, Jim was a major part of our lives because he wasn't married, and he spent all of his weekends here,” Andrews said. “He never had any children, but he adopted mine.”
"He was like a second father to me,” said Tami Smedley, Andrews’ daughter. "A lot of good memories, so those items to me are sentimental and have a lot of value that way.”
Monson says the suitcase was a great learning tool in her history class, and while she knows where it needs to be, she says it's also tough to part with. She says learning about James William Andrews meant a lot to her and to her students.
"Yeah, it did,” Monson said. “They got into it. When I told them I was going to give it back, they were like, 'No, you bought it. You paid for it. But yeah, you still have to do the right thing.'"
Thursday, she did just that. Afton Andrews never meant to get rid of that old suitcase. It accidentally ended up in a giveaway pile when she was going through her brother-in-law's old belongings.
"Jim never really talked about his days in the service,” Afton Andrews said. “He was always proud of his service and what he’d done and felt good about all that. He just didn’t really talk about it.”
But now Monson will. Through this case, she's drawn closer to Andrews and says others should, too.
"Especially where he didn't have any children of his own, to be able to keep his legacy going,” Monson said.
