A lot can change in 50 years… but a lot can stay the same, too.
Life hasn’t changed much in the village of Seagrave in Leicestershire, England. Back in 1968, 21-year-old Dave Radley was picking strawberries to earn money behind a friend’s father’s home when a cherished new gift he’d received just weeks earlier was lost.
When the ring slipped from his finger on a dewy morning, Dave was devastated. The nine-carat gold signet ring had been a birthday gift from Dave’s mother, and he knew she had spent months paying for it. Ultimately, his mother handled the news a bit better than he did.
“My family wasn’t too [wealthy] in those days and I spent hours searching for it on the rows we had been,” Dave said. “My mother wasn’t upset with me, just more upset because of how distraught I was.”
Cut to 2022: Dave is now a 75-year-old retired engineer who still lives in Leicestershire. He recently got a call from his old friend’s younger brother, who inherited the land their father once owned. The man told Dave that a metal detector enthusiast had come to his door asking if he could use his machine in the strawberry fields. He said yes, and even pointed him in the direction of where the ring had been lost, telling him the story of Dave’s missing ring.
It didn’t take the metal detectorist long to find the ring! It was found just 7 inches deep into the ground, and it was utterly unharmed except for a tiny scratch.
“When I got the call from Peter, I couldn’t quite believe it – the joy I felt in that moment is indescribable,” said Dave. “The crazy thing is Peter still owns the land, otherwise, none of this would have ever happened.”
The ring still fits! A jeweler valued the ring at about £700 ($792 in U.S. dollars), and Dave couldn’t be happier to have it back on his finger where it belongs.
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