Back in January, Ricki Lake was among the thousands of residents to lose her home in the Los Angeles fires. Ricki’s Malibu house was her “dream home,” which she built in 2019. Like so many others, it wasn’t just about the house, but about the irreplaceable personal items that were also lost along with it. In a strange twist of events, Ricki and her family have been offered a rare second chance to recover some of their lost memories. This past weekend, a photographer bought a box of old pictures at the Pasadena Flea Market. After examining them, she recognized Ricki and realized that they were old family photos. She posted them on Instagram, and thanks to the power of the Internet, the post made its way back to Ricki.
On Sunday, Dec. 7, artist Patty Scanlon purchased a box of photos from the Pasadena Flea Market and soon realized that some of them were of Lake, 57, and her son, Milo, now 28, when he was a baby. Scanlon shared some of them on Instagram in the hopes of getting Lake’s attention after learning that the former talk show host had lost her home in the January fires. The post made its way to Lake, who wrote in a comment, “I’m still in disbelief.”
The next day, on Dec. 8, Scanlon and Lake went on Instagram Live together to explain the miraculous story, which Lake said “gives you hope for humanity.”
Scanlon shared that she’s an artist who turns to photographs for inspiration for her paintings, and she paid $20 at the flea market for a box of photos after Lake’s face caught her attention. She brought them home and felt like the woman in the photos looked familiar, and eventually placed her as the Hairspray star.
The photos had been sent by Lake to a friend — an envelope with an old New York City address of Lake’s was included in the pile — who Scanlon suggested might have had an estate sale or something similar, which explained why the photos ended up at a flea market.
“I just can’t believe the magic that is my life. It just feels like there’s somebody looking out for me, because this doesn’t make any sense,” Lake said as she heard Scanlon’s story. “I’m so touched and I’m overwhelmed.”
The photos are “priceless” to Lake, who lost all her personal possessions in the fires that swallowed the Malibu home she shared with husband Ross Burningham. She said during the live chat that she particularly mourned the photos she’d lost of her sons — she is also mom to Owen, 24, who she shares with ex-husband Rob Sussman — when they were young.
“Milo is gonna be so stoked to have all these,” she said of the photos, all of which were of her oldest son when he was around 1 year old.
Scanlon called it a “miracle” that she’d not only found the photos and purchased them, but that she’d gotten in touch with Lake to return them to their rightful home.
“I cannot thank you enough for your generosity,” Lake told Scanlon. “The fact that I’m gonna get something back that I thought was lost forever makes me so happy …. It means everything to me.”
She called the artist an “angel” as she continued expressing her gratitude. “You made this year that’s been such a challenging and remarkable year…. It feels so heartwarming. It’s just truly, truly heartwarming,” she said.
The pair made a plan to meet up when Lake is back in L.A. and she promised to take Scanlon out to dinner to thank her. Scanlon, for her part, said she’s planning to paint Lake after finding inspiration in the photos.
I love these types of stories where the Universe seems to step in and deliver an unexpected gift. It’s wonderful that Ricki will get these pictures back. You always hear news reports about how someone finds something seemingly ordinary and worthless at a thrift store, flea market, or estate sale, and then it ends up being either worth a lot of money or a valuable heirloom that someone thought they lost for goods decades prior. Scanlon coming across pictures that Ricki sent to a friend 20+ years ago makes for a random enough anecdote, but when you add the sentimental value of her losing her other pictures in a house fire, it really makes it all the more special.
My mom had something like this happen to her. Years ago, she swears she lost her wedding band at a rest stop in Virginia. She’s still positive that’s where she lost it. Three years later, when Mr. Rosie and I were packing up to move, I came across her ring in a box of things that we didn’t even have until a full year after the ring went missing. There are subreddits dedicated to tales like Ricki’s and my mom’s (and more!). I like reading through them every so often when I’m in the right mood. I find some of those posts so fascinating.
I’m happy for Ricki, but I also don’t understand this story. Why does someone purchase family photos of strangers? And why post them on IG without their consent, when they are a known celebrity and you could have found multiple ways to reach out to her SM accounts or representatives.
I was confused too. Especially the part about the photos being sent to a friend from NY and ended up in an estate sale? Then being sold for 20 dollars?
I agree that it would have been easy to reach out without posting any private photos or maybe just one to prove it’s Ricki but not of her then minor children. But Ricki doesn’t seem miffed and is grateful to have the pictures so that’s what’s important.
The artist explains that she likes the randomness of unknown photos to inspire her. I’m way more concerned that private photos shared with presumably a close friend ended up at a flea market. That’s bad enough for an unknown person but who would be that careless when your friend is a celebrity?
If it was from an estate sale the friend is most likely dead. Can’t fault a person for that.
A lot of times when older people die or if people pass without any family their possessions get sold at estate sales (or there are companies that come clear out houses of all the stuff). Those things are then out in the world. It is unfortunate, but I don’t think anyone did anything deliberately wrong. And as a random individual, I wouldn’t have the foggiest idea about how to find Rickie Lake’s agent, putting it out on social media and tagging her (or trying) would probably be my go to as well. It isn’t ideal, but at the end of the day, she got her photos back and given the loss from the fires, isn’t that the important thing?
I always feel sad whenever I encounter photo albums or loose photos at charity thrift shops. I start to think (too much!) about the people in the photos & what happened to have these family memories end this way. It’s always the photographs that people miss most after a disaster happens–fire, tornado, hurricane, etc.
Not confused. Understand the story. Just always surprised by what people try to sell and others will buy.
It is a heartwarming tale, regardless.
Ok, but Rosie, the story about your mom’s ring gave me full chills!! I love uncanny stories like that. I’m happy for Ricki. I can’t imagine losing all of my mementos.
So cool, I love that for her. And love the strange ways of the world.
A friend lost her gold bracelet, the one her dad got her for her college graduation. She wore it all the time. She missed it so much that he ended up buying her a replacement bracelet, similar but not exactly the same. Ten-fifteen years later, she & her husband are moving house & they find the original bracelet either in the chest freezer they had in the garage or behind it, no idea how it got there. 🤷♀️ Now that her dad has passed away, she’s grateful to have both.