The Capitol Flea market, a San Jose event bursting with bargains and bustle, is both a Sunday mainstay and a heralded tradition for many of the northern California city’s natives.

For Tammie Diaz, it’s a ritual.

Finds are finds, usually, and a deal is a deal. Trinkets. Jewelry. Clothing. There’s no end to what a peruser may come across. One may even venture to believe that they’ve “seen it all.” Maybe Diaz was even of this mind. Maybe.

You could bet anything, however, that she’s not any longer.

Because she made a discovery recently that filled her with instant awe — and sent her on a soulful and fulfilling ardent mission.

She found a purple box. She bought it for ten dollars.

“And I opened it up and I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

It was a Purple Heart, the military award for being wounded or making the ultimate sacrifice in combat.

“I knew I had to get rid of it as quickly as I could, so I immediately went on the internet,” said Diaz.

Less than a day later, thanks to a genealogy site, she had a lead. A family historian from Alabama named Teresa Cunningham.

They, together, matched the military member the medal belonged to: Cunningham’s uncle.

“We called him Rudolph, his name was Shirley Rudolph.”

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And he was a U.S. Navy gunner’s mate in World War II. He survived the attack on Pearl Harbor and wound up in San Francisco where he met and married his wife and then re-deployed to the Philippines.

“And it’s said that that was the largest battle, the greatest battle, the toughest battle,” Cunningham said.

In the battle off Samar, the USS Samuel B. Roberts was outgunned and outnumbered, but made a daring maneuver that helped take down a Japanese ship.

Macon manned one of the massive five-inch guns, but was killed when that gun exploded as the Samuel B. Roberts was sinking.

“He gave his life for us,” Diaz said.

Tammie safely packed the medal in a parcel and sent it on its way, finally, back to Rudolph’s family.