You may have seen some of my posts on Craigslist in the Boston area lost+found titled “Lost Nonnie’s Engagement Ring”
Today I am posting about lost things and found things. It’s worth a read I think, so hang in there.
At some point during the week after Christmas, my engagement ring – my most treasured material possession – bounced out of my purse and ended up who knows where. Every day since then, I’ve looked at my kids and my husband and reminded myself that there are infinitely worse things to lose, but at night I’ve cried myself to sleep. The ring belonged to my husband’s beloved grandmother and was in the family for more than 80 years. It cannot be replaced. I am embarrassed to admit how much I have mourned for something that is essentially just a material object.
I’ve devoted altogether too much time since then looking for my lost ring.
In early February a metal detecting hobbyist named Alicia Terenzi saw one of my ads and contacted me to offer to help me look for the ring. I told her it was a long shot, after all I really have no idea where I lost it. However I had often thought that it might still be out there somewhere buried under some snow bank waiting for me to find it. I had already purchased a metal detector myself when she called me and was just waiting for the snow to melt. I offered her a reward in the event that she found it. I offered to compensate her for her time and gas money (she lives some 30 miles away). She refused it all. She just wanted to look for buried treasure and help someone out at the same time – a true pirate, but a good one. We met up one day just before Valentine’s Day. There was still a lot of snow on the ground everywhere and our search for the engagement ring turned up only a few pennies. It occurred to me that perhaps she could help me find my wedding ring that I had lost in the yard two years earlier. (Another emotionally painful and embarrassing story). I had rented a metal detector for that myself and failed to find it.
The pirate found my wedding ring in about fifteen minutes. (See left) I wept, I hugged her, I tried to thank her enough. Not possible. I finally did convince her to accept a token gift, but I owe her so much more. Thank you, Alicia. You will always be my favorite pirate. What a great story, you say. But it doesn’t end there.
I kept an eye on the snow banks and last week, there was a torrential rain storm. School was canceled on Friday (2/26) because the power was out in so much of our town. That morning I looked outside and decided that those snow banks must have melted at least a little bit. The kids and I drove over to the plaza on 114 on the North Andover/Lawrence line (in MA) where there’s a Market Basket and a Kohl’s. I pulled over on the side where the snowbanks are and got out of the car. I looked down. There, shining in the mud, completely washed clean by all the rain, was NOT my engagement ring, but someone else’s. A realio trulio engagement ring. It was beautiful. It was two weeks to the day since Alicia had found my wedding ring.
I thought to myself “I lost my engagement ring and here God has answered my prayers and given me back one. This engagement ring has been ordained to replace the one I lost.”
No I didn’t. Not for a second. I thought to myself (and I have never been a religious person) “God has given me truly the greatest gift of all. Here I have been given the chance to answer someone else’s most heartfelt prayer.” I’ll never have the ability to cure cancer or the opportunity to save a child from a burning house or the wherewithal to prevent a terrorist attack. But now I can return this precious ring to the person who lost it and wept over it as I wept over mine. I felt like Joan of Arcadia. (Do you remember that television series that got canceled a few years ago?)
God doesn’t knock on your door and ask you to help out your neighbors. God doesn’t send you a check in the mail to keep the bank from foreclosing on your home. He is asking us, CALLING on us, to answer each other's prayers. That’s what it’s all about. I was meant to find this ring, to give it back, and to use this incredible story to call on all of us to do a better job helping each other out.
So here I am. Ring owner, whoever you are, please contact me at ifoundaring@ymail.com and claim your ring from me. And I pray that you can come up with a perfect description of the ring, and you can tell me where you were in the parking lot when you lost it AND/OR provide some corroborating evidence that it’s yours because I sure have gotten a lot of con artists regarding my posts about a lost ring - imagine how many I’ll get after this post.
OK, that’s the important part of the story. You CAN stop reading now, but I have a few more things to say if you’re still there.
First of all, I owe a debt to Alicia the pirate that I cannot repay. I think that she is the type of person who is gratified by the idea that I am paying it forward. On the other hand, I would really like to do something for her. When she is not a pirate searching for lost treasure, she is a mortgage broker based in Gloucester, MA. If you are looking to refinance or buy a property, please consider giving her your business. You can reach her at (978) 223-3759 or seaseeker1@yahoo.com.
Next I have some advice for those of you who lose something. Place an ad in the paper. The day I found this ring, I went to the local paper, the Eagle Tribune, and combed through all the old issues. This ring’s owner would have gotten her ring back a week ago if she’d only placed an ad in the paper. Craigslist is wonderful because it’s free and it reaches a wide audience, but it goes away after 7 days. No archives, no way to search them, and believe me I’ve tried. So put an ad on Craigslist, remember to renew it for longer than you think makes sense, and remember to put an ad in the paper too if it’s really important. I ended up contacting the the Eagle Tribune to do a story on this in part to help me find the ring's rightful owner. The story should appear soon.
Finally, I am getting around to me. Of course the thought did occur to me that this is such a cool story that it might garner some publicity. Maybe I could use this publicity to get my own ring back! Perhaps Ellen DeGeneres or even Oprah herself or some other Talk-Show-Person will get wind of it and call me up. I'll be initially reluctant, but she'll persuade me to be on her show. Somehow we’ll arrange for me to hand over the found ring to its rightful owner in front of a live studio audience and the entire nation. We’ll all have a good cry. I’ll give my spiel about God and answering each other’s prayers. I will be coherent, moving, articulate, divinely inspired. Everyone around the world will be nicer to each other, if just for one day. Then Talk-Show-Person will turn to me.
“I have a surprise for you.” she’ll say, “I don’t have your ring for you, but I am offering a $50,000 reward to anyone who returns your ring to you.”
“Oh Talk-Show-Person,” I’ll say, weeping, “that’s so generous.”
“And,” she’ll continue, “if no one does turn in your ring, I will give the $50,000 to you personally one month from today.”
“Oh Talk-Show-Person,” I’ll sob, “then I’ll give half of it to Haiti!” (Or all of it? Or all of it minus a small amount to buy myself an anniversary band? Not sure how my perfect self in my day dream should really handle this...)
OK, that’s never going to happen. Well maybe… OK, never. (Stop daydreaming, Self!) But, in the event that you have come across my ring or do find it in the future, please consider selling it back to me. I think you will get more money for it from me than you will from a pawn shop, not that I'm made of money or anything, but I would really like to have my ring back. Besides, I am Joan of Arcadia after all, and then we can REALLY sell our story to Oprah or whoever you want. Pull some strings and get us on the show. Everyone can tell me I’m being asked to appear for something else, then you can surprise me live – it’ll be great. Then Oprah or Talk-Show-Person can give you a huge fantastical reward…
Ok, it won’t happen. But anyway, there’s some mojo going on with that ring that even I do not understand. You are not meant to keep it or sell it to the highest bidder. You are meant to return it to me and in that event your soul AND your wallet will profit. Keep it and I am frightened to think what will happen next.
So I don't have a photograph of my engagement ring. I made a crude diagram to give the finder or maybe you, the jewelry reseller, some idea of what it looks like. Luckily it is pretty distinctive. The ring has a round center stone with three rectangular bezel cut diamonds on either side, as well as four small round diamonds (left, right, front, back) in a handmade platinum setting. See how the little round diamonds are in triangles? If it did pass through your hands but you did sell it, would you please let me know anyway. I'm tired of digging through parking lots. By the way, for all you people out there who have not been inspired by this to do good things and instead have been inspired to do bad things, don't even think about trying to con me into thinking you have my ring. If you do have it, kindly let me know what is inscribed inside it so I can know that you have really found it.
Thanks for reading. I promise to let you know how it all turns out, so check back for updates.
God bless.
ifoundaring@ymail.com
