Purple Hearts belonging to Vietnam veteran found at Cudahy flea market

 

CUDAHY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- When we die, what's left behind can tell the story of us. But for one Vietnam veteran, two Purple Hearts he earned might have been lost forever were it not for the efforts of two ladies he never met. 

In this Cudahy flea market, a rare find. 

"I was looking for denims," said Frieda Abasovski, food service worker at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee. 

A conversation changed from denims to veterans when Frieda told the clerk she works for the VA.

"They’re like the greatest people that you could possibly meet because they have given so much. And she comes back with these Purple Hearts, and she gives them to me, and she goes, 'maybe you can do something with these,'" said Abasovski. 

Two Purple Hearts, belonging to the same Vietnam veteran. That touched Abasovski's heart. 

"I don’t know what word to use, that I was so privileged to hold one of them, two of them. It's like, what did I do to deserve to hold these Somebody, something should just preserve stuff that they don’t end up in a flea market," Abasovski said. 

The clerk had cleaned out the estate of a man with no known relatives, but these Purple Hearts let her know Alan Nehls was a survivor. 

"That she saved them, and she gave them to me, and they did go to Mr. Nehls, and now they’re gonna be in the museum, where they belong and he will never be forgotten," said Abasovski. 

Abasovski went on a mission to reunite the medals with their deserving owner. Turns out some of her coworkers at the VA knew him.

"The people that are still there, they know him. And this one nurse, he’s a guy, and he was crying with me today," said Abasovski. 

Nehls died Oct. 17 of last year. Abasovski learned he'd been buried in Union Grove. So, she and her husband reunited Nehls with his medals. 

For Frieda, visiting Alan Nehls' final resting place was a moving experience, and she's vowed to return year after year. 

"But now I know where he is, and every Veterans Day and Memorial Day, I will just go and honor him. We say, 'gone but never forgotten.' We should honor that," said Abasovski. 

We don't have a photo of Alan Nehls, and we don't know his personal story. 

Frieda is hoping the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison will be able to find both.