Luke Schlining, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 3 of 8

Last week,Sue was sitting on her porch step talking to to her landscaper during the fading hours of daylight. As Sue was talking she noticed  the diamond on her wedding rings was flipped downward. She quickly flicked the rings with her thumb to adjust their position. As her thumb snapped forward her three rings went flying. Quickly exclaiming « I lost my rings » to the landscaper, the daylight faded to black. A search for the rings that night was useless. The next morning a search began and ended with no luck. So Sue reached out to her community.  The neighbors, her church, and the little four year old boy across the street were all praying for the ring to be found. The Minister from Sue’s church even came over to look. He saw an over grown bush right beside where Sue sat. Thinking the ring might be in there, he asked when she last cleaned out the leaves in the planter box? Little did he know that when he began to tend to the over grown mess he would remove the rings from its hiding place.  As he worked with his hands cutting and cleaning up the leaves and twigs he had picked up Sue’s rings. Now from there the minister took the five gallon bucket of trimmings and walked to the backyard . He placed the bucket under a covered carport and then left. So for a week that bucket sat there untouched. Sue was devastated and distraught.  She saw the rings come off and disappear.  How could she not see the rings in the grass she thought. Sue had the landscaper cut the grass really short and then used a shopvac to try and pull the rings from where she thought they were hidden in the grass. Now completely stumped Sue turned to the internet. Her daughter told her to buy a metal detector so Sue typed in ring metal detectors . Instead of finding a metal detector to buy she found The Ring Finders. I hadn’t begun my days work yet when Sue called me. We talked and I told her I would be right over. I heard Sue’s story and began my search. The whole front yard, the planter boxes, under the porch, in the juniper bushes and down the front walk was where I searched with no ring found. I knew the minister had cleaned up a bush, so I asked where he put the clippings. So Sue and I headed to the  backyard to the five gallon bucket. I thought for sure I would see her ring in that bucket. However I didn’t see her ring when I searched, not even in a trailer where more clippings had been tossed. Now I knew that a bagged lawn mower had been used on her lawn so as I walked  past Sue talking to her about the landscaper my eyes saw a small shape in the gravel. So I asked Sue what is that? And then again I asked what is that Sue? I circled the rings and then started jumping up and down as I saw the diamond. Sue’s rings had been found. Whether it fell out of the bottom of the bucket or an act of God placed the rings in the gravel. The rings were found. We hugged a bunch, celebrating all the answered prayers and Sue thanked God and me for finding the rings. See, the three rings Sue had lost were on her hand for 58 years. When her husband Gaylon passed away 10 years ago his ring was placed behind hers and soldered together.  So finding those three rings brought back the memories of her late husband and the feeling of their love for one another.