New Jersey woman seeking to reunite Fairmont family with old journal

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - A journal from a Fairmont family’s vacation has turned up 40 years later in another state -- and the woman who found it is trying to reunite it with its owners.

Wendi Shaw, of Clarksboro, NJ, picked up the journal for a dollar at an antique shop.

The journal contains a written account of a month-long trip to Asia back in 1983.

After skimming through some of the pages, Shaw realized the journal belongs to an Alice and Claude Lawson of Fairmont.

Now, she’s trying to get it back to them.

“I picked it up and was like, ‘Wait, am I just reading their trip to China and Japan? This is amazing,’” Shaw said. “I was like, ‘West Virginia? How on the planet does it get to New Jersey?’”

Shaw says she thinks the journal may have been mixed in with a box of books by mistake.

The journal had an address apparently belonging to the owners on it, but when a 5 News reporter went to the home on Penlaw Drive on Monday, they learned the Lawsons no longer live there.

Shaw says as much as she enjoys the story behind the journal, she hopes the original owners and other family members can reclaim it and read it, too.

“I think its the little things in life and you know what if we can do some good why not,” she said. “It’s a treasure to me, I mean, this is a huge treasure, and hopefully we’ll find their family.”

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