Sometimes Things Just Happen....Or Do They?

We have a store in Huntersville called "Nanny's Attic and Vintage Finds". They sell bric-a brac and antiques, etc. Sue walks across the street and browses there at lunchtime.

Now sometimes things just seem to "happen"... or do they.? Put this in the "It kinda makes me wonder" category.

The following article about the store is from the current issue of The Lake Norman Herald Weekly.

Grandma’s Bible a ‘Vintage Find’

Wendy Crim 14.AUG.09
news@huntersvilleherald.com

HUNTERSVILLE – Kathy Holland wasn’t trying last month to find a piece of her family’s history, but during a trip to Nanny’s Attic & Vintage Finds, it found her.

Kathy Holland and her husband, Dave, were looking for items to contribute to the Sept. 26 Historic Latta Plantation Bluegrass and Barbecue Fundraiser. Dave Holland is a Latta Plantation board member.

They spent about 20 minutes shopping before deciding on a blue vase. Dave Holland was ready to take the ornate antique home, but Kathy Holland wanted a few more minutes to look around the 2,500-square-foot shop.

Kathy Holland stumbled upon her grandmother’s Bible last month at Nanny’s Attic & Vintage Finds in downtown Huntersville after she said she felt “drawn to it.” Her grandmother wrote the names of family members inside the well-worn, black-leather Bible.

That’s when she found it.


Kathy Holland felt inexplicably drawn to a stack of well-worn, black Bibles with aged pages. When she opened one of them, a small handwritten note and an obituary of her long-deceased aunt fell out onto the floor.

She noticed some familiar handwriting in the inscription from the book’s previous owner.

The Bible had belonged to Julia Martin, Kathy Holland’s grandmother, who died nearly two decades ago. Martin had inscribed the names of her entire family in the Bible’s registry.

“I felt like I was stuck in mud or concrete,” Holland said.

Unable to conceal her excitement, she began to shout about her find to the other shoppers.

“This is my grandmother’s Bible,” she screamed across the building.

Holland asked shop owner Cathy Wiltcher for a price. Wiltcher knew the find was priceless.

“You can have it,” Wiltcher told Holland.

“I just gave it to her,” Wiltcher later said, “I couldn’t believe it was happening, that she found their family Bible.”

Kathy Holland felt like she was walking on air as she sauntered out of the store to her car. Dave Holland was waiting for her and felt just as dumbfounded by the discovery.

“It’s astounding,” he said. “It isn’t as if she was looking for it.”

Back at home, Kathy Holland began poring through old photographs of the relatives who are named in the Bible’s registry, and had a new appreciation for them. She still wonders how that Bible found its way to Nanny’s Attic.

“We didn’t inherit a thing (from my grandmother),” Kathy Holland said last week, “but I would much rather have this.”

Kathy Holland plans to restore the Bible and keep it in her family.

But she plans to make another trip to Nanny’s Attic, she said, to see if any other items grab her attention. - Lake Norman Herald Weekly