More than 50 years after it disappeared, a wedding ring was reunited with its rightful family – thanks to a pandemic project and a chance encounter. NBC 5’s Regina Waldroup has the story.
Due in part to a lucky meeting and a pandemic construction project, two sisters have been reunited with a precious piece of family jewelry that dates back more than half of a century.
Sisters Laurie Haynes and Mary Schmid say their mother's wedding ring disappeared decades ago.
One of the sisters possibly dropped the ring down the sink in their childhood home in Bourbonnais, but no one knew for sure.
More than 50 years passed, and they believed the ring was gone for good.
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But late last year, one of the sisters got a phone call.
Jeremy Anderson and his wife, Laura, purchased the sister's childhood home in November 2020 as an investment property. While working in the kitchen one day, Jeremy Anderson found something in the rubble: a wedding ring.
The ring would sit on the couple's dresser for months.
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Then, in late 2021, one of the sisters decided she wanted to stop by her old home.
"Mary has an honest face, looks like my mom, so I said yes, come on in, look at your childhood home," Laura Anderson said.
Schmid then gave the couple her phone number.
Days after the visit, Jeremy and Laura remembered the wedding ring and called Schmid.
"She kinds of gasped and said this is crazy," Jeremy recounted.
Schmid found a picture of her mom on her wedding day and sent it to the couple.
The ring was a pure match.
"We were going nuts over the phone – that's got to be mom's ring," Haynes said. "It has to be her ring."
The sisters were recently reunited with their mom's ring in the very kitchen where it went missing.
"It fits perfect, and I've been wearing it ever since," Schmid said.
