WALTHAM, Mass. — A 93-year-old Waltham woman has been reunited with her most precious possession: a lost ring given to her by her late husband.
Boston 25 News first spoke with Marie Gladman in December, and she was devastated.
She'd been shopping at Shaw's in Waltham with family back in November when she lost the ring. Then at Dion's Liquor Store, she realized the ring was gone.
Family of 92-year-old woman offering $1,000 reward to find her lost ring
"It’s probably nothing to anybody else, but to me it’s my world," she said in December.
On Wednesday, she reflected on the moment her most precious possession was returned to her.
Her ring is now back on her hand again.
"Miracles do happen," she said.
The ring was given to her by her husband Wally, who died 19 years ago. It's her promise, engagement, wedding and 50th anniversary rings intertwined into one. She'd recently lost weight and it slipped right off her finger.
"To me it was the end of my world," she said.
Weeks of searching turned up nothing. But then Tuesday night at Shaw's, about four months later, Assistant Manager Ally Sullivan spotted something in the lost and found drawer.
"I saw it had three diamonds on it, and then I started thinking. I just stopped for a minute to think. Then I said, ‘OK, I think I know what this is,’ Sullivan said.
The ring was Marie's. Sullivan contacted the family, who woke up Marie with the surprise.
"I thought that something horrible had happened in the family. I never dreamed it was the ring," Marie said.
A coworker told Sullivan a child had found the ring Saturday and returned it wit her mother.
Marie is grateful for their honesty, and believes her late husband was somehow involved.
"I talk to him every night, and he don’t answer, but I’m sure he must have had something to do with it," she said. "Him and the guy upstairs must have got together."
Marie's family fastened the ring to her finger with scotch tape until they could get a ring guard. They want to thank the family who turned it in and give them a reward.
They ask that they contact Waltham police.