“Senior Beach Bum” Saves the Day

The night before Candice Yagmin was scheduled to fly home to Kansas City from a week of Lifespace Communities meetings in south Florida, she made a startling discovery.

“I was getting my things in order for my trip the next morning, and I realized my driver’s license was nowhere to be found,” Candice said.

Candice, vice president of client service for GlynnDevins, Lifespace’s sales and marketing partner, flies frequently and knew she had reason to be worried; post-9/11  security requires travelers to show a photo ID before they’re admitted to an airport’s boarding area.

She envisioned a long day at the ticket counter, missing flight after flight as she tried to persuade a ticket agent to allow her to board.

“I didn’t think there was any way I could get through; also, I was worried because in a situation like that, identity theft is a huge concern,” Candice said. But after searching through the night and failing to find the ID, she had no choice but to head to the airport at the crack of dawn and hope for the best.

Fortunately, ticket agents were able to confirm Candice’s identity using another form of ID, and she made it onto the plane. But the flight wasn’t a restful one.

“All the way home, I was worried — not only about someone stealing my identity, but about the steps I’d have to take get a new ID,” she said. “I resigned myself to the fact that it was going to be a pain, and in the back of my mind, I still hoped that my license would miraculously show up.”

It’s safe to say Candice is now a believer in miracles, because when she arrived home and began to go through the mail, she saw an envelope with an unfamiliar Florida return address. She opened it and found — you guessed it! — her license, along with a post-it note that read, “Found at low tide on Delray Beach, Florida, 15 Sept. 2014 at dawn. Hope you are all right. Signed, a senior beach bum.”

“I was stunned, and just so happy,” Candice, who assumes she lost the ID during a morning power-walk on the beach, said. “To think someone would have taken the time to send the ID back, not just ignore it or throw it away, was awesome. I just felt so relieved and appreciative.”

Especially poignant was the fact that the person who returned the license self-identified as a “senior” beach bum — and Candice has made her career in senior living advertising.

“It made me happy to see the person was a senior; also, I imagine he or she was walking the beach and found the ID. So that points to the fact that the person is a vibrant, active senior — just the kind of person you’d expect to see in one of our Lifespace communities,” Candice said with a smile.

The envelope included a return address; Lifespace tried to reach the individual to thank him or her on Candice’s behalf, but we didn’t have any luck. Candice sent a personal thank-you note — but if the person happens to somehow be reading this, here’s another heartfelt “thank you.”

“It was totally unexpected, and just an amazing gesture,” Candice said. “There are great people in this world.”

[In the photo: Candice, right, and Kimberly Hulett, Lifespace vice president of sales and marketing, pose on the beach at sunrise the day Candice’s license disappeared.]

<< Back to News