Owner gets back wedding ring found in couch–ten years later

By Dara Bradley

A Galway woman reunited a husband – a complete stranger – with his wedding ring that was lost for almost 10 years, just days before his tenth wedding anniversary . . . after she discovered the gold band hidden in her couch.

Tyrone man Charlie Rodgers married Galway girl Mary on April 20, 2001, but two months later he lost his wedding band. However, Charlie was reunited with the ring last week after Galway woman Etna Murphy, who didn’t even know the couple, tracked them down nearly ten years later when she found the ring in a sofa she had purchased from a charity shop.

The couple told the Ray Darcy radio show on Today FM that two months after their nuptials they thought Charlie may have lost the ring on a flight to or from Ireland and the United States.

Four years ago, a total stranger, Galway woman Etna, bought a green couch with gold lining underneath from the Saint Vincent de Paul shop in the city. She later moved in with her husband, Martin, and they upgraded their suite. Martin chopped up the old couch in the back garden and remarkably discovered the gold ring.

Etna had always intended to find the owner and left it in a cupboard until she could find the time to do some detective work. As the 10th anniversary was approaching, her mother and husband started nagging her and she eventually started to track down the owner.

The ring was engraved with ‘C and M’ and ‘April, 20 2001’, so she went to the births, deaths and marriages office to find out if did anyone with those initials married on that day 10 years ago, and eventually tracked them down.

To this day the couple don’t know how the ring went missing – they think it may have slipped off while Martin was sitting on the couch in a local hotel or bar.

Read more in today's Connacht Sentinel