Expand / Collapse search
☰

Pass-a-Grille grandfather finds missing picture of granddaughter on Facebook: 'It was life-changing'

By
Published  October 30, 2024 6:02pm EDT
Pinellas County
FOX 13 News

Picture lost during Helene returned to owner

FOX 13's Kailey Tracey reports on a family picture found on a Clearwater beach after Hurricane Helene that was returned to its owner.

PASS-A-GRILLE, Fla. - When Bruce Dworsky came back to his Pass-a-Grille home after Hurricane Helene, he didn’t have a door to walk back through.

"The water had literally taken the front door out," Dworsky said.

More than five feet of water flooded his home and knocked everything over, including the fridge. 

READ MORE: Families, survivors gather for vigil one year after Ybor City mass shooting: 'We are not just victims'

"It was pretty bad. I would say that 98% of what I had was destroyed," Dworsky said. 

Bruce Dworsky holds the retrieved picture of his granddaughter.

Bruce Dworsky holds the retrieved picture of his granddaughter.

Dworsky said he was able to save a couple of mementos and family heirlooms that weren’t totally soaked. He thought that was all that was left until Monday, more than a month after Helene hit. Dworsky was scrolling through a St. Pete Beach Facebook group.

"There’s a picture, and they said, ‘we found this picture in the sand just south of the Don [CeSar]. Does anybody know who it is,’" he said.

"Another person responded and said, ‘well that’s Kate’s [one of Dworsky’s daughters] niece.’ And I wrote back, ‘well, that’s my granddaughter,’" Dworsky said.

Krista Hodgkin said she was volunteering for a beach cleanup on Oct. 28 when she saw what she thought was a napkin. She flipped it over and saw Dworsky’s granddaughter looking back.

"I was like, ‘oh my goodness,’" she said.

The Facebook post looking for pictures owner.

The Facebook post was looking for the picture owner.

Hodgkin said she let it dry out and posted the picture to several local Facebook groups. Within a couple of hours, she got connected with Dworsky and his daughter.

"The response was amazing," Hodgkin said. "It was a very, very surreal experience." 

"It was literally the picture that was hanging on my fridge on a magnet. So, I'm about a mile and a half away from where they found it," Dworsky said. "I was on the bay side. They found it on the Gulf side. So, it’s crazy."

READ MORE: Peaches and Pearls Boutique shows unique clothing

His granddaughter, Madison, is 12 now. Helene destroyed her home, too.

"You remember the loss. You know, I lost almost everything, and so did so many other people down on St. Pete Beach and Pass-a-Grille," Dworsky said. "To know that something survived that was really important to me … And to have that, you know, that kind of memento." 

"Now I've got something to remember all the awesome times down on Pass-a-Grille," he continued. 

Hodgkin said she is grateful to play a small part in bringing back something to a family that has lost so much and be a bright spot amongst all the devastation.

"It was life-changing," Dworsky said about Helene. "So, to have the picture, to have the memory, the stuff that I lost, they’re just things, but to find something like this is pretty special," he said. "It’s amazing to see. It's kind of a Godsend."

Dworsky said he and his family are going to keep the sand that’s in the picture. They plan to frame the picture in a collage with the Facebook post and comments that helped them reunite with it.

STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: