Melisse De La Mare and Jim Gibson got married in Portland, Oregon, in 1991. While skiing a few months later, her custom platinum wedding ring accidentally fell off her finger.
Melisse explains, “I took my mitten off and I was like, ‘Oh no.’ My ring was gone!”
The ring was impossible to replace. It had originally belonged to Jim’s mother and had the names of his parents engraved on the inside. Elise and Jim also added their own names.
Years and years passed, and Melisse thought she would never see the ring again, and actually never told her mother-in-law that she lost it. Then, 27 years later, Melissa got a phone call from a jeweler in Alabama who asked if she had lost her wedding ring.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, like thirty years ago,” she laughs. Somehow the wedding ring had ended up 2,500 miles away.
The jeweler, Heather Langley, received the ring from a client. The client told her that he had found the ring at an Oregon ski resort 27 years ago, and had kept it in a box.
“I was like, I have to find her. Because it’s not just her wedding ring, it’s her parent’s wedding band, too,” Heather explains. “There are names on the inside of the band and the date. I asked him, ‘Can I find the owner?’”
Happily for Melisse, the man said yes. Heather contacted a reporter from The Oregonian who happens to have a special affinity for missing wedding rings. Heather flew to Portland to deliver the ring, and the rest is history.