Ryan Reynolds Helps a Woman Reconnect With Her Late Mother

By Dale Birdiby / Jul 28, 2022

There aren't many things more heartbreaking than losing an important personal item. Mara Soriano has experienced this firsthand. The item in question was a vintage stuffed bear that contained a voice recording from her late mother. To retrieve the stuffed bear, she asked the internet for help and got an unexpected helping hand, from none other than the celebrity Ryan Reynolds.

In the summer of 2020, during a hectic week of moving, Mara's bag was stolen. In the bag were a couple of valuable items such as her citizenship card, and her iPad. But the most painful belonging that went missing was a little stuffed bear with a recorded message from her mother saying “Part of me will always be with you forever.” This was all Mara had left from her mother who passed away from cancer.

Mara hung posters and posted tweets about the stolen bag and teddy bear. Her tweet included a picture of the beloved stuffed animal and was met with a lot of online attention. the search for Mara's bear spread quickly across social media and caught the attention of Ryan Reynolds. The actor retweeted the picture and added that he would reward $5,000 to the person who would find the bag. After Reynolds' offer, Canadian TV and radio personality George Stroumboulopoulos and Kraft Peanut Butter each pitched in $5,000, making the total reward offer $15,000.

In a tweet Wednesday, Mara wrote that the bear had been returned to her by two Good Samaritans "without a scratch on her" and voice box intact. The only thing missing was the bear's glasses, a replica of the ones her mother wore.

"It means just everything to me honestly. There was a part of me that thought I'd never see it again, for sure. It's a big city, there were so many places she could have been, it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack."

"In happier news... thank you, everyone, who searched high and low," Ryan wrote on his Twitter page. "To the person who took the bear, thanks for keeping it safe. Vancouver is awesome."

Want to keep reading about Ryan Reynolds? Click here to find out about the actor's wild dating history, and here to see how he hilariously gets trolled by his wife, Blake Lively!