Like hundreds of thousands of others, Ventura residents Don and Julie Myers were forced to evacuate their home ahead of the wildfires that have consumed huge portions of Southern California.
And like many others, what they found when they were finally able to return was nothing short of heartbreaking: Their home containing years of memories, many tangible, others not, was reduced to smoldering rubble. But at least one thing did survive the fire, thanks to a fire safe, and it symbolizes everything that’s right with this world.
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The house and their belongings were gone, and almost all of the contents in the safe had been reduced to “a glob of thick ash,”Julie said. But sifting through that gob, her husband discovered the original wedding ring he’d given to her back in 1989.
Though he replaced that ring with a second on their 25th anniversary, the original ring held special meaning to the couple, she said, because at the time Don got it, they had almost nothing.
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“It was truly amazing that he found it, I thought we had lost it forever because everything else was unrecognizable,” Julie said. “He set it up with my son to photograph his proposal while I left because I was overwhelmed with emotion and smoke fumes. The proposal was icing on the cake.”
Read her emotional account of the incredible discovery amid the ashes below:
“My husband, Don and I, are a blended family with four sons between us. The fire started in Santa Paula, about 10 miles from our house, and moved to about a mile of our home within two hours. I could see it from my deck, at 10 pm. We left immediately, assuming that all our paperwork and jewelry (including my wedding ring), was in the fire safe.â€
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“We lost our home… My wedding ring was so special to me because Don bought it for me, in 1989, when we had nothing. We returned to our home to search for it, but I left–I was a little overwhelmed with seeing some of the rubble of my life… along with horrible air quality.â€
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“Don continued searching and found the ring (along with Grandma’s teacup, too) in a ‘fire-proof’ safe–which actually had become an oven to our belongings inside! When I returned, Don popped down on one knee, re-proposing; as our 5th son, Corey photographed us.”
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What an amazing testament to the power of love … Share their inspiring love story today!
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