WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minn. — Sue and Greg Tardiff's love is a story that's just a couple days shy of being 50 years old.
Sue says she met her husband Greg when he was already serving in the Navy.
"I only met him three times before we got married because he was in the Navy, and he was stationed in Texas," she said. "Most of our get-togethers were on the phone. We spent a lot of time on the phone. In the evenings when he was at work, we talked on the phone, so that was most of it."
After 25 years of service to his country, Greg devoted his life to the outdoors and his family.
Then a few years ago, he started showing symptoms of Alzheimer's.
"We had him tested, and they said yeah, it was early onset, but it progressed quite quickly," Sue said.
Greg passed away Dec. 23. His funeral service was beautiful, with many loved ones. At the center of it all, was his blue casket, adorned with a quilt Sue had made honoring his time in the Navy.
Sue had made the quilt two years prior using Greg's Navy Chevron patches, and a photo featuring the USS Saratoga -- which he served on.
Sisters Megan Tardiff and Ashley Bray understood its meaning.
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"She had it displayed over the railing entering her house," Megan said. "Every time you'd walk in, you'd see the quilt."
"The way the quilt-- it's very colorful, and it has blue, which represents his time in the Navy. So the way that it complemented the casket was really, really beautiful," Ashley said.
But in the flurry of the aftermath of the funeral and the holidays, Megan says she was devastated to find that she had lost track of it.
"I just had a ton of stuff in my front entryway, stuff from being at the care facility, at the hospital, at the funeral, the holidays, presents, flowers, you know?" she said. "So in that melee...there was a box for Goodwill."
Megan's best guess is that the quilt ended up in there, which she took to a Roseville Goodwill location.
"Losing it is a big loss, so I feel very sad, and bad about it," she said. "It's nothing you never want to tell your mom, that you lost a family heirloom you know?"
Both Megan and Ashley have put up pleas on social media for folks to keep an eye out in the hopes that what captured their dad would return home.
"I think maybe statistically it doesn't seem like we'll get it back, but I will-- we have to-- right?" Ashley said. "There's no-- really other option, I'm not willing to accept that we won't find it at this point."
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