LEBANON, Ky. (WDRB) -- Chris Hamilton often finds himself digging through the closet.
"I'm a pack rat," he said, "and I'm proud of it."Â
While tidying up the closet one day, Hamilton came across a random box with several VHS tapes inside. He popped one in and saw a family celebrating Christmas. Another showed a sixth grade graduation. They were great memories for someone — just not him.
"I was like, 'I don't know who these people are,'" Hamilton said with a smile.
Most people would've hit stop and dumped the old tapes. Not Hamilton.
"I took a pad of paper and just went back and started watching from the very beginning," he said.
Hamilton picked up some names here and a location there. After a phone call or two, he had enough pieces of the puzzle to start searching.
"I did that thing people do, I went to Facebook," he said.
Hamilton sent hundreds of messages. Days went by, months changed, and some of the responses along the way were not so nice.
"I got a lot of responses that said, 'Hey, creeper dude, leave me alone, or I'm going to report you to Facebook,'" he recalled.
Then, finally, a friendly reply from a woman who said it sounded like Hamilton was describing home movies her family lost years ago. That woman was all the way in Arizona but had Kentucky roots.
Turns out, she was one of the little girls in the videos. Her name is Sara Donaldson Hass.
"It was definitely a surprise," she said. "My family and I moved out of our childhood home about 25 years ago, and in the midst of the move we lost all our family videos."
Hass and Hamilton exchanged those messages back in 2017 — the original sent close to the Christmas prior. Still, all these years later, there's one great mystery about all of this: No one knows for sure how that box of video tapes ended up at Hamilton's house.
"They have no connection to this house," Hamilton said.
Now, years after Hamilton returned the tapes, he and Hass think of each other when Christmas trees and lights go up.Â
"I literally got a Christmas card from her today," Hamilton said. "I guess you could say we're friends for life."
It's now also a Christmas tradition for Hass' family to watch the moments in time, which caught her becoming who she is and her loving dad doing what he did best before they lost him.
"When we first watched the videos, it was the first time that we were able to see his voice and see him in motion since his death," she said. "Having these videos back is such a gift to us."Â
It would've all been gone forever had it not been for a kind Marion County "pack rat," who understands memories matter.
"That's what I would've wanted someone to do for me," Hamilton said.
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