Dating : It took forty years to find the girl!

When I leave for work my husband always says, “Have fun at work!” I respond, “I always do.” There seems to be a dichotomy here because I work at a funeral home. In truth there is no disagreement because serving others always makes me feel good. I love talking to and listening to people. The stories shared at the front door are often touching and heart warming

Last night while greeting guests to the funeral home, and answering questions about the historic house, I met a chatty couple, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, who had an interesting story to tell. The conversation started with questions about the Hannah House, and then morphed into stories about the house Mr. Smith had built, and the houses he had remodeled. He told a story about finding something interesting while involved with one of his building projects.

He was raking out some gravel, lifted his rake, and on one of the tongs was a small chain with a rabbits foot and a class ring. After a cursory inspection he put the object in his pocket and finished his job. Later at home he took a closer look. Inspecting the inside of the ring he found the school name, the year of graduation, and the name of the student.

He thought he would be able to locate the owner of the ring without much trouble as he had significant information about her. He contacted the school, but they would not give him any information with regard to the person’s current location or perhaps a married name. Mr. Smith thought he was at a dead end — if the school wouldn’t help him how could he ever find this person.

Like most people Mr. Smith was busy working, and taking care of his family. He wanted to find the girl, but priorities put finding her on the back burner. Eventually, he put the ring in a box thinking he would work on finding her later.

Later turned out to be 40 years. One fateful day he was talking to his son about the ring, and his wish to find the girl. His son suggested running an ad in the newspaper of the town where the school on the ring was located. He did just that, and was soon rewarded with a clue to the mystery.

Someone from that town knew the daughter of the girl. The daughter made contact with Mr. Smith and the first thing she asked was where he found the ring, and was it on a chain with a rabbits foot.

Mr. Smith knew then that he had the right person! They made arrangements to meet at a location central to both of them. The fruition of returning the ring, if not to its original owner at least to her daughter, was a delight to Mr. Smith. They met over a meal in a restaurant, and the daughter was very happy to get the ring in memory of her deceased mother. In exchange she gave Mr. Smith a picture of her mother as a girl, and a picture of the mother and daughter together.

The importance to Mr. Smith was not the ring, but the person who owned the ring. His intent always was to be able to return the ring and he anticipated that return for 40 years. The reward for Mr. Smith was learning the full story, putting a face to the name in the ring, and finally making a connection with this person who lost her class ring so many years ago.

I hear these great human interest stories almost every time I work at the funeral home. That’s why I say to my husband, “I always have fun at work.”

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