Woman finally receives family portrait she thought had been lost when shop suddenly shuttered

When Laurice Martin's daughter, Delilah, was diagnosed with cancer in the fall, the two embarked on a mission: to get as many relatives as possible together for a family portrait.

"We had been planning a family portrait for a couple of years and just couldn't get anybody together," said Martin of Kansas City, Missouri. "We got everybody together within less than a week and took the picture."

Four generations were photographed on that day; Martin's family was dressed in all white and her sister's family in black. But Martin said that when she tried to find out when the portrait and other photographs that the family had taken would be ready for pick up, the photo studio gave her the runaround.

"We had been going through this since October," said Martin, adding that she eventually figured the images were a lost cause.

That was until she got a phone call earlier this week from one of her cousins.

Martin said her cousin was watching the news late Tuesday night and saw a story about a man named Brian Bononi and his family, who had come across more than 160 abandoned portraits in a shuttered photo shop and were trying to connect the photos with their owners.

"I was so excited," Martin said.

In January, Bononi, an architect who is also from Kansas City, was taking measurements inside of Portrait Innovations, which had had recently closed at the Shops at Boardwalk mall. Inside, he found more than 160 canvases, mugs, ornaments and envelopes of pictures left by the front door. He said the pile of personalized items appeared to be headed for the trash so he called for permission to take it all home with him.

"I got a hold of my family. They came up and we recovered all these photos," he said.

Since that day in January, he and his family have been working hard to reunite families with their personalized items. In a story that was featured on "World News Tonight" on Tuesday, Bononi told ABC News that he had reached out to about 70 people and that about 59 had called him back. More than 20 families have already seen him to pick up their photographed items, he said.

By Wednesday, Martin had seen a video of the news piece and contacted Bononi's family on Facebook to confirm they had her portrait.

"I was so glad when I saw that. I didn't know what to do. That was the one with everybody in it," she said. "When I first [saw] it, I just wanted to cry."

That evening, Martin went to Bononi's home to pick up her family portrait. The portrait is now with Martin and her daughter as the two prepare to battle Delilah's cancer together.

Bononi encouraged any families who think their photographs might be among the items he has to reach out to him by email at portraitboardwalk@gmail.com.

"You don't know what a blessing you are to so many people," Martin told Bononi. "Because I saw graduation pictures... Those things, you know, you just don't throw away."