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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Is There Wine in Heaven? And Will I Get Some?

I work for a non-profit domestic violence center who depends upon grants and donations to keep our doors open. We also operate a Thrift Store that is completely supported by donations.

Today I received a bag of jewelry from the unclaimed property department of our local Sheriff's Office. It was all costume jewelry, mismatched earrings, some bracelets, etc. There was one item in the bag that caught my attention.

It was a gold ring with a blue stone and some writing around the stone. It was a mans class ring.

I read the name of the high school and the year...1965. Looking at the inside of the band I found initials.

What the heck, let's check the ever faithful Internet and see what comes up. A quick Google showed me that the school was a private Catholic school in New Jersey that had closed within the last year. They had even taken down the schools website.

But low and behold, their was an alumni site. I decided to check it out and see if, by chance, someone with these initials had registered with the site. It is a privately run site, with a lot of sarcastic humor about their times at this school. A lot of the alumni still live in the area and must keep in contact.

No one with the initials I was looking for was registered under the 1965 graduation year.

The site has a Contact Us button. So, I sent a brief email, telling them what I had found, what I was looking for and did they know of any way to find someone with these initials. Knowing good and well it would probably be weeks before I heard anything (if I ever did).

Imagine my surprise to receive an email within an hour telling me that they had someone on their books with those initials and they would contact them.

When I got home from work Monday night, I had to check my work email and found another response from the Alumni site.

They had contacted the individual who told them he had not seen the ring since 1969 while he was at Saint Leo University. A Catholic University that is 2 miles away from my office. A Catholic University whose President sits on our Board of Directors.

I still have goose bumps.

The site is going to give the individual my work contact information so we can work on getting his ring back to him.

I wish that ring could tell us what it had been doing for the past 39 years.

Not a Grampy says I have a one way ticket to heaven now. Do they allow wine in Catholic Heaven?

9 comments:

Girl, Dislocated said...

That's bizarre! I'd love to know how the ring got from NJ to FL!

Not a Granny said...

girl-from what they said, he was going to the University here. I want to know where it has been for the past 38 years?

Anonymous said...

That is one of the most awesome stories I have heard in a long time.

And I wish your store was close to my house I have a trailer full of "stuff" to go to the second hand store.

Treasia Stepp said...

I think for you there is probably wine waiting someday. What a sweet gesture on your part for taking the time to find the rightful owner and getting it back onto the finger it belongs. Kudo's to you for this.

Anonymous said...

I think it's always so cool to hear about owners getting back long, lost items. He'll be thrilled, I'm sure.

If you run across my class ring, which was snatched by a punk boyfriend of mine (initial RLH), please, let me know =)

The Ferryman said...

Oh please, even if they didn't have any up there, you would find a way to smuggle some in...

Not a Granny said...

jennifer-I'm sure there is one near you somewhere. Maybe they will even pick up??

treasia-thanks for stopping by. I really was surprised to get such a quick response from the alumni site.

catscratch diva-hmmm..were you in this area? I can send out a search party.

Mr. Fab-you know me so well!!

Tricia said...

If we get wine in church, then surely we get wine in heaven. At least, I have been counting on that.

And that is quite an interesting story. I would love to know what that ring has been up to.

Tug said...

I just hope it's wine & not just grape juice like a lot of churches have now...

What an awesome story!!