Heartbroken Elma Fay is appealing to the public for help to find her precious necklace that contains the ashes of her baby grand-daughter. The distraught grandmother has worn the necklace every day since her granddaughter Nicole passed away at 16-months-old over a year ago. Baby Nicole died on January 5, 2015 from a rare genetic disease called Aicardi Syndrome. She wasn’t expected to live more than a few months.
Elma realised that her keepsake was no longer around her neck when she returned home to Kilmessan, Co Meath after a trip to Liffey Valley Shopping Centre last Sunday.
“I knew the chain was a little faulty and I kept meaning to replace it, but I didn’t think it would fall off. I always take the chain off going to bed and put it back on every morning,” she said. “I remember putting it on me on Sunday morning and I went into Boots and Power City in the centre at around 2.30pm.”
“On the way home I stopped in Dunshaughlin for petrol and to collect a pizza in Kilmessan. It was only when I was sitting on the couch watching TV that I felt for the necklace as you tend to do instinctively. I always just touch it every now and again, almost automatically. When I discovered it was gone, I was so distraught. We searched the house and car for it and I rang everywhere I had been, but although everyone was so helpful it hasn’t turned up.”
The necklace is a stainless steel canister containing the ashes with three small diamante stones on a silver chain. Anyone that may have seen the necklace in the area of Liffey Valley Shopping Centre or around Dunshaughlin and Kilmessan is asked to contact Elma’s daughter Leona at [email protected].