A woman who had her beloved jewelry box broken while fleeing her place of residence in Mississippi during Hurricane Katrina has finally had it restored back to its beautiful condition by a caring nurse at NHC.

Darlene Baker, 67, received her glass jewelry box, adorned with a silver shell in the center, from her parents on Christmas of 1993. The jewelry box means a great deal to her. 

When Hurricane Katrina caused massive destruction on the Gulf Coast and surrounding inland states, Baker was living in Gulfport, Miss. As she traveled north, away from the impending flood and wind damage which destroyed her apartment, Baker had a glass pane of her jewelry box shattered.

“I knew it was broken, and I was so disappointed because my mom and dad are gone now. It’s all I had left of them. I was crushed,” says Baker.

Baker used tape to cover the broken piece of her jewelry box and kept it that way until Cindy Tilton, the director of nursing at NHC, discovered how much the box meant to Baker. Mrs. Tilton took it to Brent and Brenda Reed, two locals who work with stained glass, and they restored the box. 

“Darlene had told me about how much the box meant to her, and how it had been a present from her parents when she was younger. She told me about it breaking while she escaped from Hurricane Katrina,” says Tilton. “I knew my friends worked with glass, and if anybody could fix it, they could.”

Mrs. Baker wasn’t worried about having the same type of glass as the other parts, as long as the empty space was repaired, but the Reeds restored the box with the same glass pattern, making the jewelry box look as though it had never been damaged in the first place. 

“I couldn’t believe it. I was so happy,” says Baker.

Baker will be 68 on July 30 and has two children and three grandchildren. She has resided at NHC since November 2018.