GREENSBORO, N.C. — A Triad woman is trying to help a bracelet made in honor of a fallen veteran find its way back home.

Marilyn Frederick Stanley carries a silver bracelet in her purse. It has a name and a date etched onto it, and she’s been looking for its owner for more than a year. She said the stranger who unexpectedly gave it to her carried it even longer.

“I was given this by a gentleman who’d been holding onto it for 10 years, and he thought maybe because he couldn’t find this young man that maybe I could,” Frederick Stanley said.

That young man is USAF Chief Master Sergeant James Shreve Hall of Greensboro. According to National Archives records, he served in the Vietnam War and died while missing. He was declared dead on May 30, 1974.

Hall is a complete stranger to Frederick Stanley, but her tie to him is personal. She almost lost her only son when he hit an IED while serving in Iraq.

“When I first got the call, I just started screaming. Something he said … brought me back to reality. He said 'mom, if I’m killed, they’ll never call you on the phone. They’ll knock on the door'. So, for a long time after that, every morning I’d get up and look out the door to make sure there was nobody out there,” Frederick Stanley said.

She said an item like the bracelet would have been her most prized possession if her son hadn’t made it home. He survived, but so many, like Hall, didn’t. She’s still searching because she wants his family to finally have the gift made in his memory.

“I found little bits and pieces of information but nothing so far, it kind of just came to a dead end there for a while,” Frederick Stanley said.

She thought Hall was still missing thousands of miles away. What she didn’t know is that Hall’s remains were found and brought home to rest in Greensboro. His grave is located in the Veteran’s Circle of the Forest Lawn Cemetery, just over 20 minutes from her house.

Tears filled her eyes when she finally stood in front of his gravestone. His mission is over, and she’ll keep fighting to finish hers.

“Thank you for your service, James Hall. We’re one step closer to finding his family,” she said.

If you know the family of James Shreve Hall of Greensboro, please email noelle.lashley@charter.com.