They say that what is meant for us will always find its way back. In recent world news, a woman was reunited with a wedding ring she had lost 50 years prior – discovered by a ‘flabbergasted’ metal detectorist on the Western Isles.
According to the 86-year-old Peggy MacSween, she had once believed as any practical person would, that the ring was lost forever after it slipped off her finger whilst gathering potatoes at her home in Benbecula in the 60’s.
Upon hearing the story years later in a friendly neighbourhood chat, a fellow islander and “single-minded metal detectorist” Donald MacPhee decided to dedicate his time to finding the ring for Peggy.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that Donald shares a surname with the beloved fictional character Nanny Macphee, who too was a protagonist set on helping others.
Donald, a hostel owner in the area spent three days searching the coastal meadow where Peggy had once picked potatoes, as The Guardian writes. Time had changed the potato patch into a sort of local watering hole for drinking with a view, which made the metal detectors buzz with action due to all the cans.
However, on the third day after fighting through scattered cans and on a mission almost synonymous with searching for a needle in a haystack, Donald discovered the ring – something he attributes to luck. He had dug 90 holes in the search, as BBC reports.
“I was absolutely flabbergasted. I had searched an area of 5,000 sq metres. It was a one in a 100,000 chance and certainly my best find. It was a fluke. There was technique involved, but I just got lucky,” the wedding ring hero expressed.
In adding to the story, Peggy said that: “he just came to the door and said: ‘I have something to show you.’ It was the ring. I couldn’t believe it, but there it was. I thought I would never see it again.”
This isn’t the first wedding ring wonder that’s happened this year either. Earlier, in our own Mother City’s Matroosberg mountains, a Capetonian was reunited with her grandmother’s wedding ring lost during winter’s snowfall, a story that still shocks warms this writer’s heart when I am reminded of it, writes Cape {town} Etc’s Ashleigh Nefdt.
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Treasured ring lost on snowy mountain found- a little determination goes a long way
Picture: Donald McPhee