Married couples go through a lot together — for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health — but one couple hadn’t even made it to the vows when they encountered an unusual trial.
Nick Day and his now-wife Shaina were engaged and living with his parents in Lakeland, Florida, more than 20 years ago when Shaina’s engagement ring went missing.
“I had taken my ring off,” Shaina told WTVT-TV. “It was sitting on the counter, so when I sopped up the water, I guess I didn’t pay attention very well, snagged my ring in the process, and tossed it in the toilet and flushed it.”
“She came to me one day and said, ‘I think I lost my ring,’” Nick told WFLA-TV. “She said, ‘It was on the counter now it’s gone and I think I may have flushed it down the toilet on accident.’”
Shaina was serious about recovering her precious engagement ring. So serious that she prepared herself and went into the house’s septic tank to search for the important keepsake.
“I climbed down into the septic tank with a hose that I had to suck up everything that was down there, and they pumped it through a hose over a screen, a window screen, into a 55-gallon drum,” the dedicated bride-to-be said.
Despite her valiant and painstaking efforts in sifting through sewage, there was no ring to be found, and the couple accepted that it was well and truly gone.
But it wasn’t.
In fact, it hadn’t even made it down into the septic tank. It had disappeared into the toilet — where it stayed for the next 21 years.
Last month, Renee, Nick’s mother, was renovating the bathroom. A plumber came out to remove the old toilet when a discovery was made.
“The plumber unhooked it from the, the ground and then just dumped it over in the tub to get the excess water out, so when he took it out it didn’t drip through the house, and when he did the ring come out,” Nick said.
“He said, ‘Do you think it’s Shaina’s ring?’ and I looked at it again and I went, ‘Oh my God yes!’” Renee said.
The ring was tarnished and broken, but the diamond was still in place. Renee immediately knew what she had to do: She bought a little ceramic toilet, placed unwrapped chocolates in the bowl for “effect” and set the crown jewel on top.
The unusual gift was wrapped and presented to Shaina on Christmas day.
“They brought this out,” Nick said. “It was wrapped up in a little Christmas bag so we opened it up and both of … both of us knew exactly what it was.”
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“It was kind of an ugly cry,” Shaina said. “I sat there and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is my ring. This is my ring.’ I’m wiping my eyes and mascara is going everywhere.”
“That just is absolutely amazing that it’s just been sitting there, because we had just thought it was gone. It was never coming back.”
Nick said it was a meaningful gift and “brought tears to both our eyes.” He also had some advice to give to listeners:
“Check your toilets when you lose things.”
