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Tammy Albright had just a handful of mementos to remember her grandparents, Erman and Margaret Albright.

Just touching her grandmother’s jewelry would bring vivid memories flooding back of weekend visits to their Vancouver Island farm.

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“They were the nicest people ever. I remember my mum always saying I was so lucky because I was related to my grandmother.”

Naturally, the heirlooms were among the items she hurriedly tucked in her suitcase when Albright and her partner Scott Blake saw smoke waft toward their Fort McMurray home May 3.

While wildfire robbed some McMurray residents of their most precious possessions, it was Edmonton thieves that made off with many items this couple held dear.

“It is just the memories, but the memories are just amplified,” Albright said of her missing keepsakes. “I would just look at them and touch them, and then I would remember.”

Albright and Blake had been staying at a friend’s house in Mill Creek. Albright and her friend returned from a walk Thursday to find the home’s front door open, Blake said.

Missing were some of the homeowners’ most valuable possessions. The guests’ neatly packed suitcases had been dumped out. Albright’s heirlooms had vanished.