Letter: Bristol County family looking for public’s help after item meant for murdered family member accidently sold at yard sale

Michaela-Ann Lingard Hanson

Rehoboth, MA – Hi, everyone! Our family is so grateful for everyone who has stopped in at our yard sale (last) week and we want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Please assist our family with sharing this post. While we are incredibly happy with the turnout, this post is actually a plea for help…

Many of you may or may not know the trauma that our family has been struggling to get through over the last year and a half. If you don’t, without drawing on and on, I will do my best to give a very short briefing.

My sister, Jennifer Lingard, mother of two young boys (9 and 4 at the time), was murdered by her boyfriend. Our family has not and will not ever heal from these wounds that continue to remain open and festering. My mother, Sheree Lingard, the strongest and most wonderful human and mother, is so broken and remains a shell of the woman she once was, as Jenny was her first born child. No mother should ever have to outlive their children.

It has been very difficult surviving in the wake of Jenny’s murder, but my brother, Tyler and I have been doing everything we can each day to try to see our mother smile, but she is just as broken as we are (if not more) and we all have accepted that nothing will ever be the same and we will never feel the same happiness in the way we once felt happiness. We all have come to terms with that and accepted that which we cannot change.

Again, this post is a desperate plea…On (October 8th or 9th) (we think) my mother sold one of these porcelain birthday angels (the second birthday angel) for a few dollars to someone and she does not remember any detail about the person. She thought she was ready to part with these angels. During the sale she picked up the first and third birthday angels and read the card on one of them. It was then that my mother crumpled and wept with remorse. She had gotten them for Jenny for each of her birthdays and had held on to them with the hopes of one day giving them to her when she was an adult, but they were put away for safe keeping and she forgot to give them to Jenny.

Please, we (my brother Tyler and I) are begging everyone to share this post and if you happened to have been the one who bought it, we would be willing to pay you just so we could get it back for our mother. We all have been trying to get through each of these stages of grief, and she thought she was prepared to let go of her daughter’s-her first born-her baby’s belongings-but today this angel that she sold the other day really has knocked her down. The angel represents so much more to her and sometimes you don’t realize these things until after they’re gone (but I guess that is just the way of life).

Thank you all so much for all of your support and for reading this unfortunately long-winded novel. The yard sale was at 389 Tremont St Rehoboth, MA, and she thinks she sold it on (October 8th or 9th). If everyone could please SHARE SHARE SHARE this post and spread the word, we would be indebted to the poor person who bought it and will be happy to pay them for it.

If anyone would like to reach it to me, please feel free to call or text me ANYTIME day or night 774-319-2704, or send me a message on Facebook messenger.

Again, this is a desperate cry for help from my brother and myself. She keeps saying that she doesn’t need it back, but we know she is just trying to be stoic. Please help if you can. Thank you all so very much.