"I looked down and there was a bundle. I reached down and picked it up," Brison said. "My conscious would bother me, God knows."
The Belgian immigrant and mother of six set out to find the man whose name was on a Casino Players card she found with the cash totaling $2,837. She immediately contacted area police.
Unbeknowst to Brison, the money's rightful owner was looking, too. Earlier that day, Lester Franklin and his father had been at the same clinic Brison attended when it fell out of his pocket. It was when he went to pay for lunch that he reached in his pocket and there was no cash. The retired Chicago city worker had planned to deposit the money in the bank that day.
"I said, 'Oh no.' I went back out to the car and said to my dad, 'I think I lost $2,900," said Franklin.
Frantic, Franklin searched but found nothing. The next day he got a call from authorities.
"They gave me the money in an envelope and asked me to count it. It was all there. And I said, 'Who turned this in?'" said Franklin.
Brison, a widow, says she never considered keeping the money, although her fixed income has kept her from visiting her terminally ill son in Texas. She didn't ask for it, but Franklin gave her a plant and a $500 reward. Brison says she will use to fly down to see her dying son.
The new friends say there's a lesson for everyone.
"When you do the right things, God will bless you tremendously," said Franklin.
