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Found: one 1978 class ring
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| By: Anita Zimmerman |
March 11, 2009 |
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The Albert Lea Class of 1978 ring, on Diane Fjelstad’s hand for safekeeping, was mailed to owner Elena Broadwell Tuesday afternoon.
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With help from two local residents, one Oklahoma woman is getting the perfect birthday present.
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Doug Riley was renovating a Minnesota kitchen when he made a discovery: one silver Albert Lea Class of 1978 ring, complete with an aquamarine stone and a tiger mascot.
It was on the floor beneath the base cabinets. Riley, hired by the home's current owners to remove the old cabinets and replace them with updates, didn't know how to find the ring's owner.
He showed it to girlfriend Diane Fjelstad, a former Chetek English teacher, who looked for the initials often engraved on the inside of class rings: EMC. It was time for a little detective work. Meanwhile, Fjelstad slipped the ring on her finger for safekeeping. It was a perfect fit.
Fjelstad accessed the Albert Lea High School Web site for information on the class of 1978. Failing to find an online yearbook or class list, she made contact with two organizers of the group's 30-year reunion, held in August 2008.
There were two potential owners, Fjelstad found out. One, Elena Cordona, had a brother still living in Albert Lea. Fjelstad called and asked him for his sister's phone number.
Elena Broadwell, the Quapaw, Okla., woman who answered the phone, had lived with her older brother for several years in the house Riley is now renovating. She'd lost the ring right away after getting it and hadn't seen it for around 30 years. The home was sold to its current owners, acquaintances of Riley who had Menomonie ties.
Broadwell described the ring perfectly, Fjelstad says. The aquamarine was her birthstone, and she was "very, very excited to find out after all this time, she was going to get her class ring back."
Broadwell's birthday is Thursday, so Fjelstad was determined to get the ring to her in time. She mailed it out Tuesday afternoon.
Fjelstad classifies the experience as "one of those classic lost-and-found stories." Despite the perfect fit, she wasn't sad to give the ring back, she adds, just happy to see ring and owner reunited.
Inspired to explore her kitchen's cabinet area, Fjelstad says she's learned one very important lesson from all this.
"Watch out for those base cabinets," she smiles. "It's very possible things could slide under there."
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©The Chetek Alert 2010
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