The Kindness Report #33: The Fellowship of the Lost Wedding Ring

Important Note: Yes, it’s Sunday. No, I didn’t forget what day it is. I just scheduled it wrong. 😅 I know it came late, but in my defence, so was the ring. (You’ll see what I mean.)

Patrick Mohr was on holiday in Italy with his wife and kids. Sixteen years married, a mountain stream, kids splashing around. A pretty normal family day.

Then one of the kids grabbed his hand in just the wrong way and his 18-karat wedding band slid right off. The water was moving fast and the ring was gone in a second.

Frozen

He just stood there. Sixteen years on that finger, and now it was somewhere downstream and he knew he’d never see it again.

He and his wife reacted completely differently. He wanted to mope (his words, more or less). She walked off downstream to find anyone at all who could help. The only other people around were three young Italian guys: Filippo Palagi, Nicola Malloggi and Edoardo Poggi.

They listened to the whole story and were honestly pretty pessimistic about it. They didn’t even have goggles to lend. But they said they’d help anyway, and they made a promise that sounds like a joke until you see what happened next. Like Frodo and the gang, they’d find the ring and bring it all the way to Ireland.

Three Days in the Water

They started with kayaks and found nothing. Day two was the same.

Most of us would’ve called it there, and nobody would’ve blamed them. They had already given up two days of their own holiday for a stranger’s ring.

On day three they roped themselves to boulders and went in with snorkelling gear, in the fastest-moving stretch of the stream. Malloggi saw a glint in the river sand, grabbed a handful, came up for air and opened his hand. The ring was sitting in his palm. Very Lord of the Rings.

The Text

Mohr was at dinner with his family in Tuscany, stirring a pot of pasta, when his phone buzzed. It was an Italian number he didn’t know, and the message was a photo of a gold ring with a caption: “Hi Sméagol, look what we found.”

He told CBC he just put the phone back in his pocket and kept stirring, totally in shock. His wife saw his face and asked what happened. Then he showed everyone, and by his account chaos followed.

And Then They Flew to Ireland

They could have posted it, or met him somewhere in Italy so he could grab it. Instead they offered to deliver it themselves so Mohr could finish his holiday in peace.

So the three of them got on a Ryanair flight (a lot quicker than Frodo’s eighteen months) and turned up at his door in Ireland dressed as hobbits, singing songs from the films.

I would love to have seen his face.

He took them to Glendalough, the thousand-year-old abbey and lake in the Wicklow Mountains, and to Glenmalure Valley. Then Guinness in the local pub and a proper Irish dinner at home, with promises of friendship that sounded like they’d stick.

What Stayed With Me

Mohr’s takeaway was that sometimes you have to let go of control, put it out there and ask for help, and sometimes somebody answers. I like that because he didn’t solve anything himself. His wife went and asked, and three strangers said yes.

They didn’t owe him anything, they weren’t confident they’d find it, and it cost them three days of their holiday. They did it anyway, and then made it funny and a bit ridiculous on top, which honestly makes it better.

Palagi said the whole thing amazed him, and borrowed a line from Bilbo about how you step out your door and have no idea where the road will sweep you. A ring in a river ended up with three friends in hobbit costumes in an Irish living room.

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Source: Good News Network: 3 Italian ‘Hobbits’ Searched for Irishman’s ‘Precious’ Wedding Ring