A Sulphur family was united with a treasured family Bible after reading last week’s article on the unclaimed book. Downtown Properties salvaged the Bible from an old family home.

Barry Edwards called Downtown Properties early Saturday, the day the article was published, claiming the Bible belonged to his great-grandmother, Agnes Odom.

The article discussed the newspaper clippings found in the Bible highlighting Kinder football player Larry Edwards, Barry Edwards’ father. Information on Barry Edwards’ grandfather, Carlain Edwards, was also found in the handwritten family tree at the front of the Bible.

Carlain Edwards is the oldest of Agnes Odom’s children from her first marriage to George Edwards.

Excited to recover both the Bible and the keepsakes it preserved, Carlain Edwards, his wife, Eva, and his son, Jamie, planned a trip to Lake Charles from their home in Toledo Bend.

What seemed like a simple success story, however, held a surprising twist. On Monday, Downtown Properties manager Becky Epperson received an unexpected visitor who introduced herself as Charlotte Odom Rogers, Agnes Odom’s daughter from her second marriage.

She was moved to tears by the discovery of her mother’s Bible, and her son, Thomas Rogers, agreed to meet with Carlain Edwards and his family the next day to discuss where the Bible would go.

On Tuesday, 78-year-old Carlain Rogers sat down at a table with his wife and son and with his nephew, Thomas Rogers, and shared story after story as he and his family looked through the contents of the family Bible.

Although the Bible would fall to him as the oldest son, Carlain Edwards chose to give it to nephew Thomas Rogers, whose memories of living with his grandmother, Agnes Odom, date back to early childhood. Carlain Edwards and his family kept the clippings found inside the Bible, while Thomas Rogers kept the Bible and two copies of the clippings for his family and his cousin, Gary Gunter.

“It brought memories back to me,” Carlain Edwards said. “I’ve seen miracle after miracle after miracle through my daddy, and people don’t believe in miracles. Well, I’ve got news for them.”

Thomas Rogers also said the Bible brought memories back for him. He said he remembers the Bible sitting on the bottom shelf of his grandmother’s end table. “She was kind of a trip,” he said. “My parents like to crab, and I remember going out to Hog Island Gully one time. She grabbed one of the crab lines and felt it was kind of tight, so she started pulling it up. It was probably a 4-foot alligator that was on it, and she decided she was going to take the net and start beating the alligator with it.”

Thomas Rogers told numerous stories of growing up with his grandmother. He described her as having traditional country roots and a boisterous personality.

“She was kind of old school,” he said. “She was the type that if you needed a spanking, she’d go get a switch. One time, we had some woods were I’d grown up in Sulphur, and she went through and collected birches and tree limbs and came home and made a broom out if it.”

Some of his most vivid memories come from trips with his grandmother to McDonald’s for breakfast and to Walmart for pretzels and pizza in the food court.

He said his mom, Charlotte Rogers, would be thrilled to see the Bible again.

“They’ve been kind enough to let me take it with me,” he said. “She’s going to be overwhelmed. She’s going to burst into tears, I know.”

None of the family knows just how Agnes Odom’s Bible found its way into the old home on 721 Pine St., but all are grateful that it did.(MGNonline)