Found a war medal in a wall and the choice is haunting me
I was replacing the subfloor in a century home and a World War I medal fell out of a crack. It has a name on it that doesn't match any known records from the area. Part of me wants to report it to get the soldier recognized, but another part worries it might unravel a painful family secret. Keeping it feels like theft, but exposing it could hurt living relatives. Nobody warns you about the weight of holding a piece of lost history in your hands.
Yeah, the "pull between doing the right thing" that spencer_gonzalez1 said is spot on. My friend found old letters in an attic and it turned into a whole family thing. I mean, maybe a local museum could look at it without using names right away? Idk.
Man, that's a heavy thing to find. You're totally right about the weight of it, holding someone's whole story in your hand. That pull between doing the right thing and possibly opening old wounds is so real. Really feel for you trying to figure this one out.