Normally raking the yard is the kind of elbow grease that leaves a sense of accomplishment in its wake, but when Michigan resident Joseph Novetske finished raking his yard, he was left dispirited.
That’s because the 80-year-old realized he lost the wedding ring he had worn for 42 years of graced matrimony with his wife, Mary Ann Novetske, 71.
Searching as best he could, the day crawled to an end, so Mary stepped in to help on the morrow. She went on Facebook to the group What’s Happening in Charlotte Michigan Right Now which has a few hundred of the town’s 9,200 residents.
Asking if anyone had a metal detector, Mary also explained what had happened and then went to church with her husband. When they got out, the post had blown up with people offering to drop everything they were doing to come help look among the blades of grass and piles of leaves. Several brought metal detectors.
“They didn’t know us, but here they were, willing to help,” said Mary Ann Novetske. “It was exciting to see so many people care about this.”
She told the Washington Post that from that moment it really felt like it was their community.
The band was handcrafted ahead of the wedding in 1981, and the couple chose vines ensnaring a cross. Even with its shiny exterior and the sun on the afternoon of November 5th, the metal detectors and the volunteers were unable to find it.
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The search dragged on on hands and knees, and eventually they had to pass over the piles of wet leaves. In the third hour of searching, Joseph, the ring’s owner, saw something in the grass.
“I saw the band reflecting light because it was a beautiful sunny day,” he told the Post. “There it was!”
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Novetske told the Post that the ring had been loose for a good while, and the first thing the couple did after showing their gratitude to the helpers, was go straight to the jewelers to get it resized.
Undoubtedly they found more than just the ring that day, but friends, a community, and hope.
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