Marion Bae, FISM News
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In a story ripe with holiday cheer, 86-year-old Peggy MacSween was recently reunited with her original wedding ring, over a half century after losing it while potato farming.
In the late 1960’s MacSween lost her gold wedding band while digging for potatoes in a fertile patch of land near the sandy coastline on Benbecula, a sparsely populated island off the western coast of Scotland. She told BBC, “I was shaking the sand out of my gloves and the ring disappeared. I didn’t know until I got home. I went out once or twice to look for it, but there was no way of finding it.”
MacSween wore her mother’s wedding band after losing the original ring and her husband later bought her an official replacement. The old ring was considered lost for good. That was, until recently, when a neighbor heard her tale and decided to go treasure hunting.
After hearing MacSween’s story, local business owner Donald MacPhee decided to try to find the ring in an act of good will. MacPhee owns the Nunton House Hostel in Benbecula and has been interested in metal detecting for seven years. He enlisted some help to find the area where the potato patch once was, and then got to work with his metal detector.
After three days of searching, he was able to find the ring and return it to its owner. He posted a picture of the ring on his Facebook page, as well as a number of other items he had dug up during his search.
He told the Guardian, “For three days I searched and dug 90 holes. The trouble is gold rings make the same sound [on the detector] as ring pulls and I got a lot of those – as well as many other things such as horseshoes and cans.
“But on the third day I found the ring. I was absolutely flabbergasted. I had searched an area of 5,000 square meters. It was a one in a 100,000 chance and certainly my best find. It was a fluke. There was technique involved, but I just got lucky.”
Peggy MacSween was obviously thrilled to be reunited with her lost ring, which MacPhee said still fit her perfectly after 50 years. MacSween married her husband John, who passed away a few years ago, in July of 1958.
The finding of the ring was a community effort, and good news travels fast. According to Donald MacPhee’s Facebook page, another person recently asked for help finding her wedding ring that she lost about 20 years ago while at the washing line. He shared photos of the band along with all the coins and other objects he found during that search.
MacPhee is currently two for two in his quests and has certainly brightened the lives of the two women who were reunited with their sentimental treasures.