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A Texas woman whose bridal photos were last seen nearly five decades ago can finally pass them down to her granddaughters thanks to an auction, social media sleuths, and a kind act.

Harriet Galbraith had bridal photos taken in 1959 in Washington, D.C. She was just 21 years old at the time, was a model for John Robert Powers, and was engaged to be married.

She always thought it’d be nice to get her photo taken at Bachrach Studios, she told USA TODAY Thursday morning.

The Bachrachs were a family of photographers who had previously taken one of three photographs of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, and the studio was the place to go if you wanted your likeness encapsulated in time.

“I called my mom and she came and we went over there,”  Galbraith, now 85, said to USA TODAY. “I never asked the price … It took me a year-and-a-half to pay off the bill to go to such a fancy photographer.”

In them, she donned a strapless Christian Dior gown, pearls and long, elegant gloves. The photos were placed in frames sold by the now defunct department store Miller & Rhoads, Galbraith told USA TODAY. 

They remained part of the family’s personal collection until they were lost during an estate sale in Lynchburg, Virginia. She last remembers seeing them in the late 1970s.

The photos didn’t show up again until January of this year, when a woman bought them for about $5 at an auction in Brookneal, Virginia, about 80 miles southeast of Roanoke. 

Sandra Poindexter, a retired nurse and author who bought the photos, saw a name taped to the back of one of the photos: Harriet Elizabeth Marshall (Galbraith).

She posted the information online and after social media users did some research to help her out, she was able to ship them to Galbraith, who now lives in San Antonio, Texas.

“I thought that my pictures were gone forever and I was so disappointed that we would not be able to pass them on to my granddaughters and my family,” she said.

She is now able to keep the photos in the family, giving them to her granddaughters.

Photos were given to bride’s granddaughters

Galbraith, the bride in the photos, received them in the mail Tuesday and couldn't be happier. 

She’s grateful for both Poindexter, who bought the photos, as well as Donna Reichard, who inboxed Poindexter with the model’s information, making the return possible.

Galbraith said the photos ended up at the auction because her mother had them. Once her mother passed away, they were in her sister’s possession. Unfortunately, her sister was unable to find the photos and once she aged and moved into a retirement home, she had an estate sale.

“During the estate sale, she came down with the flu and stayed in the bedroom and she never saw whatever went out in the sale,” Galbraith said. “These pictures were lost for several years. She never thought about them again and I didn't ask her about them anymore.”

Woman who found photos was just looking for vintage picture frames

Poindexter, who found the photos at the auction in Virginia, said she was looking for vintage picture frames at the time.

She bid on a box of picture frames and got first choice among items on the table. The frames Galbraith’s photos were in caught her eye.

“Before I got back to my seat, I was looking at the pictures and I thought ‘Wow. These are fabulous. This woman is beautiful. I wonder who she was,’” Poindexter recalls. “I could tell that they were professionally done and that there was something special about them.”

She decided to instead keep the photos in their original frames and look for the woman photographed in them. She posted about it on Jan. 15.

The post was shared in a group called Living in Lynchburg, where social media users took to the comments to post information they found online about the woman in the photos.

Woman who first contacted bride in photos found her in three hours

Donna Reichard lives in Lynchburg and is part of the Living in Lynchburg group. 

She saw Poindexter’s post on Jan. 16. She often searches online for people who have had a positive impact on her life and reaches out to send them cards and let them know.

When she saw the post about Galbraith’s photos, she set out to search for her. She found the 85-year-old within hours. 

“I stumbled on a nugget,” she told USA TODAY Thursday afternoon. “There was a deed where she sold her house in Virginia and moved to Texas.”

She began messaging people who may be related to her. She also found a phone number for a possible relative. The man turned out to be Galbraith's son, who said his mother would likely love to connect and get the photos, so he gave her Reichard’s number.

“It was like 10:00 at night … so I didn't think anybody would call back that night,” Reichard said. “10 minutes later, she calls me.”

The pair had a wonderful conversation and talked about the photos, as well as the dress Galbraith wore in them. It meant a lot to Reichard, who said the 85-year-old reminds her of her late mother, Arlene Wade.

“My mother would be 85 if she was living and it just so happened to coincide that the anniversary of my mother's death was last week,” Reichard said. “It’s almost like it was meant to be to talk to (Harriet Galbraith).”

Once Reichard got Galbraith’s approval to relay her address to Poindexter, she did and the photos were on their way to Texas.

Model and late husband met at an event they attended with other people

Galbraith said she met her late husband, who went by Jack, at an open house in 1958. They each attended with different people. Someone invited them to an open house for a three-story apartment.

“I had a date from the University of Virginia,” Galbraith said. “He was a philosophy student and we had nothing in common … It was a blind date.”

Jack was there with a young woman he knew. As Galbraith looked around the first floor, she recalled feeling someone watching her. She looked around and saw Jack with a smile on his face.

“After a while, I went up to the second floor and there's that person again, grinning at me over on the other side of the room. We finally got up to the third floor and he came over to me.”

He introduced himself and asked if he could call her sometime. As he introduced himself to Galbraith, his date called his name.

“Just a minute, sweetie,” he told his date before turning back to Galbraith. “Now, what’s your number?”

She laughed as she remembered the event, asking “Isn’t that awful?”

But still, something compelled her to give him her number, so she did.

‘He used to tell me I was beautiful every day’

The pair married the next year, had two children and remained together until he died in 2016, she said.

During their time together, they lived overseas due to her husband’s government job. They had a son and a daughter. Their oldest child, a daughter named Elizabeth Anne, died at just 16 years old from meningitis.

It was hard, she said, but they managed to have a really lovely life together.

“We had 56 years of wonderful, happy, loving marriage,” she said. “He used to tell me I was beautiful every day even though I looked like hell. He was so sweet and he was so intelligent.”

Despite serving in the Foreign Service as a diplomat and as an officer in the CIA, his first love was journalism, his wife said. He also loved painting. 

When he died in 2016, the couple lived in Virginia and their son invited Galbraith to move and be closer to him in San Antonio. 

“I just packed up … brought my dog and my three cats and here we are,” she said.

Virginia woman is ‘always looking for treasure’ at estate sales, thrift stores and auctions

Poindexter, who bought the photos, said she likes going treasure hunting at auctions, thrift stores and estate sales and has been going for a few years. 

In fact, the bridal photos aren’t the only fun find she has made.

“Most recently, I actually found a vase that's worth hundreds of dollars at Goodwill and I paid $4.99 for it,” she said, adding that it’s labeled as a piece from French artist and World War I veteran Camille Tharaud.

She said the vase just jumped out at her. 

“I grabbed it quickly,” she said. “I had no idea what I had in my hand. I had no idea until I came home and researched it … I'm always looking for treasure.”

The most recent treasure she found, Galbraith’s photos, put a smile on many people’s faces. She said she’s happy to be part of it.

Galbraith said Poindexter and Reichard are both wonderful women for what they’ve done for her family.

“I've made wonderful friendships with both Sandra and Donna,” Galbraith said. “They're just lovely people to have followed through with all this and so I'm just so appreciative.”