One night while preparing dinner, Colleen Daly thought a salad sounded nice. So she headed out to her decades-old garden, on the homestead where she and her husband live. This property has been in the family for over 100 years now, and Colleen’s husband actually grew up here. This garden has been feeding him for most of his life. As a child, his mom would be the one to harvest the salad from just outside the back door.

With her bounty of vegetables at the ready for salad prep, Colleen noticed one strange carrot that stuck out from the crowd. This one had a gold ring around it! She showed it to her husband, who recognized it immediately. He already knew the whole story, and exactly who that ring belonged to.

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Family Secrets

Back in 2004, his mom Mary Grams had been doing some weeding in the garden, and lost her engagement ring. But she didn’t ever tell a soul what had happened, except her son. Not even her husband, Norman, was ever the wiser! She’d been wearing that ring on her finger since 1951, a year before she married Norman, and she just knew he would overblow the whole issue if she told him. So she simply bought another ring, just a little smaller, and carried on with her life. If Norman ever noticed, he never let on. “Maybe I did the wrong thing, but you get so worked up,” she said. (1)

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Thirteen years later, the family landscape had changed quite a bit. Mary and Norman had long since moved on to a new place in Camrose. Their son and his new wife Colleen had taken up residence in the family home, carrying on the same traditions. Tending to that big, beautiful, well-established garden was an important one. But on that special day, the garden that nourished this family for over 100 years now, had a different sort of nourishment to offer up – food for the soul and treasured memories. Mary’s beloved ring was back.

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Family Treasures

It’s been about 6 years now since Norman passed on, leaving this earthly realm soon after the pair celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. But Mary says if she had it to do over, she’d have told him. Apparently, he had a healthy sense of humor, and she thinks maybe he’d have found the whole thing funny. (1)

But now that she has it back, she’s taking no chances with it! If she’s doing any work outside, or there is any chance she could lose it, she always leaves the ring in a safe place. This ring has a wonderful story, and it won’t get away from her again! But, it also seems the ring is truly meant for her… proving the old adage that what is meant for you will never really get away from you. It’ll always be somewhere in your orbit, ready to boomerang back to you, whenever that wonderful day finally comes around. Though honesty may usually be the best policy, this small lie made this story even sweeter.

*Article originally appeared at Healthy Holistic Living. Reprinted with permission.