Wedding ring set lost in Halifax snowstorm reunited with owner

Margie Abando initially thought she picked up a toy ring when she spotted something shining in a snowbank last week.

It wasn't until days later she realized she had found two diamond rings.

"I really did think they were like a bubble gum ring from a machine or a children's ring. Just because they sat in the snow for so long, that's probably why they were so discoloured," Abando said Friday.

She cleaned them up and posted a note on Facebook and an ad on Kijiji. She received numerous calls from people who said they'd lost their engagement rings, but none of the callers could identify the engravings she spotted inside the bands.

Unbeknownst to her, Katrina Lindthaler lost her rings while walking her dog during a snowstorm in February. She'd been wearing her rings on a chain around her neck since developing an allergy to the metal.

Her infant daughter had started grabbing at them so she tucked the bands in her pocket. When she returned home, the chain and the rings were gone.

"Already at least five centimetres had snowed since then," Lindthaler said. "I thought, 'I can't get them but no one else can get them until the snow melts, either.'"

A search with a metal detector a few days later turned up nothing.

'I was just drilling her for connections'

Lindthaler, who is celebrating her eighth wedding anniversary this year, held off putting up posters for the prized possession until the snow started to melt. But after hearing nothing, she started to give up hope.

"I thought somebody had probably found them before I did and I thought maybe we should think about claiming them on insurance," says Lindthaler.

When Abando spotted a poster, she called the number but didn't hand the goods over immediately.

"I sort of felt bad because I was just drilling her for connections on the rings," she said. "At least they got to the rightful owner. And it was nice seeing her so happy."

Once Abando got in touch, Lindthaler said she made the connection immediately. The women often passed each on walks as they live close to one another in Clayton Park.

'I'm just so lucky'

Lindthaler also remembered Abando from years earlier, when Lindthaler — a nurse — had cared for her at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Centre. After suffering a severe back injury, Abando said most of the people who cared for her during the weeks she spent unable to move are a blur.

"I guess we're all connected in some way, because that happened years ago," said Abando.

"One of things I did say was, 'Do you believe in God?' And she said, 'Yes I do.' And I said, 'So do I.'"

Lindthaler said she's decided to keep her rings on her finger or leave them at home from now on.

"I'm just so lucky.… It was nice to see a familiar face looking out for me," says Lindthaler. "I feel like I have a very good guardian angel out there somewhere. I'm very well looked after."