Operation Memory Recall: the lost ring

Year: summer of 2006
Location: Star Valley, Wyoming

The hubby and I were having a fun time at the Cheney family reunion in Star Valley, Wyoming. We knew this was our last horrah with our family before moving far, far away. A short month later we would moving to the wild west for law school.

One of the many activities we participated in during the family reunion was tubing down the Salt River. As we were getting out of the car to head to the river, someone yelled out, "leave everything in the car that you don't want to take down the river...keys, rings, etc." I hadn't thought about leaving my wedding ring in the car...but I didn't want it to fall off in the river, so I took it off, rolled it up in my towel and sat my towel on the car seat.

We went along...had a grand ol' time tubing down the river...even though my tube was super crappy and lopsided and didn't hold air. It didn't even hold me up in the water...so I basically was swimming down the river instead of floating down on a tube.

We made it to the end of our tube ride and one by one climbed out of the river. My brother-in-law went to the car to fetch all of our towels. He came back holding out all of our towels and I quickly grabbed mine and wrapped it around me as I tried to warm up. We stood around talking for a bit until it hit me. My ring! I walked over to the car and looked in the backseat. Couldn't find it. I looked under the floor mats, checked in the cracks of the seats, looked around on the ground...couldn't find it anywhere.

It was then that I started to panic. I couldn't lose my precious wedding ring...the very ring my dear husband placed on my finger as he promised to love me always and forever. I started to cry...and I HATE crying in front of people. It's just something I don't do. However, in this case, sometimes the rules are broken.

We looked and looked...EVERYWHERE. The ring was nowhere to be found. I felt horrible. We even went back later with a metal detector. Still couldn't find it anywhere. The thing that bothered me the most was that I know it wasn't lost for good, like say in the river. It was somewhere...probably laying there in the gravel and we just couldn't see it. I guess there is a chance it could have flew into the shrubs that were next to the car when my bro-in-law opened up my towel. I just hated to think that it was there in the dirt right in front of us.

I was so so sad. I know it was just a ring, but there is just something so sentimental about a wedding ring.

I told Curtis that he didn't have to get me another one. Part of me felt like I didn't deserve another diamond ring....that is like a once in a lifetime thing. When we did talk about replacing the ring, I told him not to get me another diamond...a plain old band would suffice.

The following March (9 or so months later), during one of our trips to Utah, Curtis surprised me with a trip to the jewelers for a new diamond ring. What a sweetie.

It may not be the ring Curtis proposed to me with...or the ring we said "I do" with...but it is the ring that Curtis said "I love you" with and that is all that matters.