Sask. man reunited with long-lost wedding ring

Bill Wilson thought his wedding ring was gone for good after accidentally flinging it out his truck window while driving down a dirt road near McCord, Sask. in the early 1970s.

“A grasshopper flew in and landed on my chest, so I captured him between my thumb and the palm of my hand and flipped him out the window,” Wilson remembered.

He didn’t go very far before he noticed his ring finger was bare, but with a packed vehicle there was no way Wilson was turning around to search for it.

Bill Wilson and his wife, Audrey, have been married for 51 years and for 45 years he went without a wedding ring. (Anne Hayter/Submitted)

Since he rarely wore his ring, due to it being a safety hazard when working on his farm machinery, Wilson said it took his wife a week to notice it was gone.

Once she knew, Wilson said the search “intensified” — metal detectors and all — but they always came up short.

Fast forward 45 years to June 15, when Carlee Goodwin, who lives on a nearby farm, was taking a stroll down that same dirt road and came across something shiny near an old school monument.

“I was thinking it was a piece of metal off a tractor … and soon I realized it was a ring,” she said, adding she tried it on only to discover it was fit for a man.

“I immediately thought, ‘How long has it been here and when did it get here?'” Goodwin explained.

When she got home from her walk, Goodwin said her first instinct was to call her grandmother, who told her that she’d probably never find the owner and “not to think too much on it.”

Four days later, while having coffee at an auction sale, her grandmother ran into Wilson.

“She asked, ‘Ever heard of anyone losing a wedding ring around the old school?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I did — me,’ And of course, she didn’t believe me,” recalled Wilson, adding it wasn’t until he described the ring’s engravings that she believed him.

“She said, ‘I don’t believe it that we found it after all these years, and I don’t believe that the second or third person we told was the owner — but only the owner would know what’s engraved inside,'” he said.

Bill Wilson and his wife, Audrey, have been married for 51 years. (Anne Hayter/Submitted)

The next day, after paying Goodwin a visit, Wilson was reunited with his beloved wedding band.

“I was glad to get it back, and my wife noticed within an hour that I was wearing a ring again,” said Wilson, adding he kept it a surprise from her.

As for Goodwin, she’s still shocked that she found the ring’s original owner, after asking less than a handful of people about it.

“It feels amazing. It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime things — one of those things you’d do every day if you could,” she said.

Almost half a century without it, though a little tighter and worse for wear, Wilson said his long-lost wedding ring fits like a glove.