She lost all of her treasured possessions… but what happened next will warm your heart

It’s unimaginable: every photo, memory and keepsake you’ve ever owned, gone up in flames. Sadly, this happened to Sharon Briggs, not once but several times.

After her family rebuilt too many heart-wrenching times, Ms Briggs gave up looking for her destroyed belongings, assuming they were all long gone.

That was until years later when Chandra Mays discovered an orange suitcase in her home, filled with old photos, a flag and a bible – she knew straight away she had to get it back to its owner.

“When I originally started going through the suitcase, it became more significant than just a batch of photographs, especially after I found the flag,” Mays told Fox News.

As people do these days, Mays turned to Facebook to see if anyone knew the people in the photos, in the hope social media could send it viral and land in the right person’s lap.

That it did, and Ms Briggs was able to collect those memories she thought she could never get back – she hadn’t seen some of the family photos for 50 years.

“I’ve never really seen pictures of my mum when she was so young,” Ms Briggs’ daughter said. “I can’t believe how much I look like my mum!”

Ms Briggs believes her sisters, whom she isn’t in contact with, left the suitcase behind when they sent their mother to a nursing home.

Watch the heartwarming reunion with Sharon’s belongings below and tell us, have you ever lost precious memories only to find them again years later?