Forgotten memento reunited with owner 27 years later

ELLSWORTH – When Sarah Cook was cleaning out her mother’s attic in Ellsworth, she didn’t know she would stumble upon a treasure. Her discovery has yielded a new friendship, returned a keepsake to its rightful owner, and nurtured a belief that everything happens for a reason.

“My mom is working on selling her Ellsworth home,” Cook said. “Dad died 6.5 years ago. I was poking through the attic.”

She pulled a box of what she thought were scraps out of the attic. Her grandpa, Lytle Bystrom, had owned and operated Bystrom Woodworking in Hager City for years. Cook grew up next door to him before her family moved to Ellsworth. She thought the box might contain a memento from his business that she could keep.

When her grandpa died unexpectedly, Cook was only 9. Her world was shattered. She used to spend hours in the shop with her grandpa and dad.

“I lived right next door. He was my neighbor, my everything,” Cook said.

He had made trophies and plaques for local fairs and sporting tournaments. Her dad, who also worked for the family business, focused more on refinishing furniture and antiques.

“When Grandpa died, we collected scraps of wood that were pretty or unique, to remember him by,” Cook said. “My family just held onto it (the box). But then I pulled out this plaque. ‘What’s this?’ I thought. It was totally finished.”

The plaque, wrapped in foam, had a worn hockey puck affixed to the wood, the date Feb. 6, 1996 inscribed and the name Seth Larson. It was a for a “first pure hat trick.” Cook was intrigued. She wanted to return the plaque to its rightful owner. So she took to Facebook.

She posted a photo of the plaque on “Forgotten Wisconsin” and within 17 hours, the plaque was back in Larson’s hands. But the story took a couple twists to get there.

“I thought I’d put it up on Facebook and try to find this guy,” Cook said. “I did it before the holidays at 10 p.m. on a Saturday night. We were in contact by 2:45 p.m. Sunday.”

Larson’s cousin saw the Facebook post and messaged Cook and told her he lived in Albert Lea, Minn., only 2.5 hours from Cook’s home in Mondovi. She messaged Seth Larson on Facebook, but ironically, it was the wrong Seth Larson. This one was a wrestler who lived in Albert Lea; she was looking for a hockey player. Lo and behold, wrestler Seth knew hockey Seth and had his phone number.

Hockey player Seth Larson and Cook connected and met for lunch at Culver’s in Rochester, Minn. the next day, where Larson also had a surprise for Cook.

“A few people reached out to me on Sunday morning about a post on ‘Forgotten Wisconsin,’” Larson said. “The only other Seth Larson I’ve ever met (the wrestler) called me and gave me Sarah’s number, so I called her.”

On Feb. 6, 1996, Larson was a sophomore in Red Wing, Minn. He was a forward on the Wingers hockey team and had scored three consecutive goals in a high school game, his first natural hat trick.

Larson showed Cook another plaque her grandfather had made, commissioned by his stepdad for his first goal. What he didn’t know was that his stepdad had done the same for the hat trick. That plaque was one of Bystrom’s last projects: He died a year later.

“This one, I don’t remember it getting sent over there,” Larson said. “My stepdad remembers bringing it over there. He was trying to surprise me. Red Wing hockey at that time, we were pretty good. We were already playing in the state hockey tournament. We were getting lots of awards and accolades at the time, so I can see why it slipped my mind.”

He always thought he had the puck, stored in one of his hockey memorabilia totes. Except, he could never seem to find it.

“I remembered the worn NHL logo on it,” Larson said. “I always thought I had it. Over time, it became more and more distant.”

When he saw the post on Facebook, he knew immediately it was his puck and his plaque.

“It’s really awesome to have the puck back and to have the plaque,” Larson said. “There’s a lot of nostalgia and excitement. I got a little teary-eyed. Wow, something like that could’ve just been tossed aside, because we weren’t looking for it at the time.”

Cook knew nothing about the first plaque. The hat trick memento got stored away when Larson’s stepdad forgot to pick it up. A year later, Bystrom died and the plaque went into a box of scraps.

“It was really neat, because as I said, it’s almost like being able to finish my grandfather’s work,” Cook said. “It’s kind of healing and really indescribable.”