[If you should choose to adopt this prompt to contribute stories of folks who have gone out of their way to lend genealogy-related assistance to others, I would greatly appreciate a mention to Filiopietism Prism whenever you do so. Thank you! And please do use the same photograph below to illustrate the prompt and show it is adopted from this blog. ;-) ]
An engagement ring is usually something to cherish -- but especially so when it or the stone has a family history and is an heirloom on loan for a lifetime. So the loss of an engagement ring worth thousands of dollars becomes devastating when it is also a ring bearing an heirloom stone gifted from a dear mother-in-law. It is a loss where the monetary value can be calculated, but that value can sometimes be recovered if the ring happened to be insured. It is the loss of the heirloom to future brides-to-be in the family, however, that can never be calculated and the broken line can never be repaired.
This was the situation that Kathy Buffkin of Jacksonville, Florida found herself in a couple of years ago when she and her husband flew from Alabama back to Jacksonville after visiting a son. For whatever reason, Kathy gave the heirloom engagement ring and other rings to her husband to carry while they completed their travels. He placed the rings in his shirt pocket and when back at the Jacksonville airport he retrieved their luggage. Not long afterward they realized the rings were gone and decided they must have fallen out of his shirt pocket when he bent to grab their luggage! Kathy was sure the engagement ring was gone forever, but she dutifully reported the loss to Jacksonville International Airport.
Weeks after the loss of the rings, and what must have been many all-consuming moments of grief over the loss of the heirloom engagement ring, the Buffkins got a call from a young man. The caller just happened to hail from the the same area in Florida as Kathy Buffkin. The stranger said he had found a ring at the airport and asked Kathy to describe the rings she had lost. When she described her lost engagement ring, the kind stranger said, "I have your ring." He did not want anything by way of reward or even any recognition apparently. The name of the Good Samaritan was not reported, but Kathy Buffkin and her family have their lost heirloom back and available for future generations of family brides.
You can read more about this Good Samaritan moment here.
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Photograph of the The Good Samaritan sculpture by Francois-Leon Sicard (1862 - 1934). The sculpture is located in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, France. The photograph is by Marie-Lan Nguyen and has been placed in the public domain by her. See, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Good_Samaritan_Sicard_Tuileries.jpg
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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew
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What a wonderful story! There is so much good in the world. It's too bad these kinds of stories aren't front page or top news stories.
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