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Grandma Goes to High School Basketball Game, Realizes Wedding Ring Disappeared

By Liz Boselli January 18, 2018 at 1:28pm

Mary Jo Griffith was attending her granddaughter’s high school basketball game on Dec. 23 at Stoughton High School.

As Griffith put out her wrist to be stamped at the front entrance, she was alarmed by what wasn’t there.

Her beloved wedding ring was not on her finger. The last thing she remembered was taking it off to put on lotion, and she hadn’t seen it since.

In addition to it being her wedding band, the piece had enormous sentimental value to Griffith. The ring had recently been redesigned to include parts of her mother’s and aunt’s rings.

In Griffith’s words, the ring was sentimental, “My husband, my mother, my aunt close to me at all times.”

For four days, the family searched for the ring. They remembered where they’d parked their car that night, but a search of the lot yielded no results.

Throughout the search process, Griffith said she relied on her faith and prayed to Saint Anthony, the patron saint of lost things. “Dear Saint Anthony, Look around something is lost and must be found,” she repeated to herself.

So in a final plea for help, Griffith’s daughter, Julie Briggs, posted a message on Facebook with an image of the lost ring.

Within two hours of the post going up, it had more than 250 shares. And soon enough, it caught the eye of Shawn McDonald and his wife Dawn Witek.

When they came across the post, they were floored. The image of the ring they were staring at was just like the one-of-a-kind ring they turned into the school after finding it in the parking lot.

“‘Wait a minute, that’s not lost that’s found,” McDonald said when he saw the picture.

And Witek had a feeling someone would return for it when they found it in the parking lot. “I’m like, I’m pretty sure that’s somebody’s wedding band,” she said.

They quickly connected with Griffith and her family on social media to get the beloved ring back to its owner.

In an update to the original search post, Briggs thanked everyone who helped in the search. She also reported that her mother was so emotional in the reunion that she could only take a picture of the ring.

But later, Briggs was able to snap a picture of her mother with her ring safe and sound on her finger again, and true happiness on her face.

Griffith’s husband, Melvin, also took to Facebook to thank everyone for helping his wife. “It is nice to see in the world how great people are in helping each other,” he wrote.

“It makes me feel proud for what you did in helping my wife in getting her ring back. What a great way in seeing the great Christian spirit in all of you.”

And Griffith, more grateful than ever before, agrees. “There are good people in this world,” she said, “and we need to thank them from the bottom of our heart — and I do.”

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