Long Island Woman Finds Owner of Vintage Photo Washed Up During Sandy

A vintage wedding photograph that washed up in front of a Long Island woman's house after Hurricane Sandy was reunited with its owner Saturday.

Leah Welsh said that after appearing on NBC 4 New York and elsewhere to share the story of her quest to find the photograph's owner, she was contacted by the family of the woman in the black-and-white photo.

Welsh arranged to return the photo to the woman, Lorraine Hopes, who lives in the same Massapequa neighborhood as Welsh.

The Massapequa resident initially found the photograph about two years ago in a pile of debris on her front lawn. The image shows a woman in a dress pinning a flower onto a man's tuxedo.

"This is my mom," Hopes said, adding that the 65-year-old photo was taken on her mother's wedding day. The man in the tuxedo is her grandfather. The photo was taken moments before he was to escort his daughter down the wedding aisle.

Welsh tried her best to find the owners but had no luck. Two years later, she dug up the photo again in another effort to locate the owners.

"Sandy was a huge devastation for a lot of people, and you can replace materialistic items and personal belongings, but a picture is really special," she said.

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