Lost ring bands community together to produce a miracle

Windham Walmart employee Bernadette
Stevens displays a ring that was given to 
her by her late mother that she lost during
February prompting a desperate search.
Earlier this month she found the precious 
memento in some melting ice near her
driveway in Casco. SUBMITTED PHOTO

By Daniel Gray

With a little over 50 square miles in Windham, finding an item that has been lost is no easy feat. Personal items are misplaced all the time, whether it be big or small. There are great cases where the items are found, but not every story has a happy ending such as that. To lose a priceless ring, for example, anything could happen. For example, finding the ring where you least expect it.

That happened to Bernadette Stevens, a Casco resident and Windham Walmart employee. In February, Stevens had noticed that during her shift that the ring from her beloved mother, Mary Stevens-Jellison, had somehow slipped off her finger and was lost.

The ring had been her own engagement ring and Stevens’ mother had recently passed away in August 2019. The ring was gold with three striking diamonds embedded in it, and though no matter the cost, it was a precious memento of her mother and losing it was a huge heartbreak to herself and her family.

Stevens recalls one fond memory with her mom and the same ring,

"I remember seeing the ring when I was younger, just looking at it, and my mother would tell me 'If you can get this ring off my finger, I'll let you have it.' She didn't think I would be able to get it off her finger, it was a challenge," Stevens said. "It took a while to get, but her ring means the world to me."

She was devastated looking down to see that she no longer had her mother's ring on her finger. Determined, Stevens looked high and low, even checking the plastic bags with Walmart's to-go carts that are used with pick-up orders. The hunt was on, but Stevens was not the only person searching.

Stevens had reached out to other Walmart associates, who made sure to keep an eye out for the ring. Stevens also took to Facebook in a desperate attempt to see if someone had found it in the store or the parking lot.

"I had cleaned so much to find the ring, hoping that it would just appear on its own,” she said. “Tore the couch apart, tore everything apart where it could have gotten stuck. I reached out to the community since maybe someone had found it in the parking lot or in the store. I didn't expect so many people would reach out and offer to help."

Instead, the opposite happened. The original post Stevens made on Facebook had more than 3,000 shares and wonderful comments to match. People across Windham gave their best wishes for Stevens to find the lost ring. There were even people willing to help search the parking lot if she needed help looking for it.

"I was just blown away. I had so many comments and shares, and a few guys wanted to search the parking lot with a metal detector once spring hit,” Stevens said. “I wasn't expecting so many people to lend support to me, and it really helped me get through the month knowing that I had people willing to help out in different ways."

February came and went, and then the snow and ice slowly started to melt in March. Still, no sign of the ring and Stevens had even gone to local pawn shops and jewelers to see if anyone had found the ring and sold it for a quick buck. 

As the days ticked on, she found herself losing hope of ever finding it. She was explaining her desperation to the Walmart store manager until something had clicked.

"I went to the store manager and I was talking about the ring, and she suggested that I ask my mom where it is," Stevens said.

Of course, she couldn't just call her mom up on the phone and ask. Instead, that night, Stevens spiritually asked her mother to help her find the lost ring or to give her a sign of where it would be, at the very least.

The next morning, nothing came of it. She continued doing this and by the third day, she was outside looking for something else and suddenly found the unexpected. 

There was her mother's ring, trapped under a bit of ice.

Stevens goes into detail of how it felt to find the ring there, of all places.

"I saw a glimpse of gold and looked closer at it. I kept repeating to myself 'no way' since I was surprised it was 3 feet away from my car, just under ice. It must have just slipped off my finger at some point in the colder days of February."

Excited and overjoyed, Stevens happily told her family, friends, and the community. Everyone was supportive that she had found it, glad that it wasn't in the parking lot and instead was found close to home.

Since losing the ring, Stevens has also had countless people recognize her at work and give passing words of encouragement upon finding the ring once more. Now, Windham residents are congratulating her on finding it.

"It just really goes to show how awesome Windham is,” Stevens said. “I grew up there and It's hard to find communities like that these days to root you on for the little victories."

To save this from ever happening again, Stevens said that she will be getting a guard on the ring that helps resize it without having to damage it in any way and prevent it from falling off unexpectedly when she wears it. <