The Story of the Lost Bracelet

Something just felt off. And I knew why right away; my wrist felt bare.

If you know me, you know that I always wear a green bracelet. A simple green silicon bracelet that I only take off if I absolutely have to. It reads “Patrick 5/23/85–7/15/07 What a Guy… Next”.

When I was 8, my cousin Patrick was struck as a pedestrian by a drunk driver summer after graduating from college. I was really too young to understand and comprehend the tragedy then. He was a lot older than me, so even though we grew up in the same town, I don’t remember him too well. But the whole extended family really united, I remember that much. Part of this was the family giving out green bracelets to family and friends.

The green bracelets were a great way to really physically unite everyone. JJ Redick, one of Patrick’s favorite basketball players, heard about the tragedy and got ahold of a bracelet too. You can see him wearing it in this old picture.

Patrick’s amazingly strong family started a golf tournament and scholarship fund in his memory the following year. I remember helping out with my family and this became an annual tradition. As I grew up, I started to understand just how sad and tragic what happened was. I now see Patrick as one of my guardian angels, and always wear the bracelet as a reminder of that.

This past week, I took a week-long trip to Iceland. It was the most amazing week of my life, and as usual, I started it with the green bracelet on my wrist. Only a few days in though, I knew something was off.

My bracelet was gone. I figured it must’ve just come off with a shirt which happens sometimes, but I checked through my clothes and it wasn’t there. I checked through bags and around my bed and couldn’t find it anywhere. I tried to just focus on my trip for the time being and hoped it would show up on its own.

One night a few of us were just relaxing in the hostel lounge and I decided to look into some bracelets on my phone. I figured maybe a more durable and permanent bracelet would be a good idea if I was going to have to get a new one anyway. My friend Ike noticed my odd online shopping and asked about it. I told him I had lost a bracelet and he curiously asked what it looked like.

“It’s just a green bracelet with some writing on it,” I said. His face started to light up.

“And what writing did it have on it,” he asked.

“Some dates and the name Patrick, it was for my cousin,” I told him.

“No way, I think Amadeus picked it up on the hot spring hike on Friday,” he said. “Let’s go check.”

We ran to the rooms to find Amadeus and asked him if he still had it. He did and happily returned it, asking what it was for. I told him, and he explained how he came across it. It was on the way back down the mountain from the hot springs on our first full day in Iceland.

This probably doesn’t sound like that crazy of a story. Except this is what it looked like coming down the mountain:

It was completely dark. Yes, we had headlights and flashlights. But it was nighttime. It must’ve come off while I was changing jackets in the windy and rainy weather. That bracelet shouldn’t have been found by someone in my group. It shouldn’t have been seen or thought to have been picked up. I shouldn’t have been online shopping next to Ike, one of the few people that saw Amadeus pick it up and hold onto it.

But all these things happened, and somehow I ended up back with the bracelet.

I can’t help but think that Patrick is having a bit of a chuckle watching this unfold from above.