47 years ago she lost her ring in the US, it was found in Finland

It sounds unbelievable. Sixty-three-year-old Debra McKenna lost her ring 47 years ago in Portland, USA, and a few days ago a metal detectorist found it near a forest in Finland. The jewel was given to the woman by her boyfriend and future husband in high school.

The ring was found about six inches underground in a forest near the Finnish town of Kaarina. "I was shocked. I couldn't believe it was really my ring, which I had lost almost half a century ago. I needed to see it. I don't understand how it got to Finland," a shocked McKenna admitted. Thirty-eight-year-old Marko Saarinen, who found the ring, was equally surprised.

The story of the lost ring begins in Portland in 1973. That's when Debra's boyfriend, Shawn, gave the jewelry to her; it was his graduation ring from Morse High School. He was going away to college and wanted the girl he loved to have a memory of him. Debra was only 16 years old at the time.

"I remember exactly how I lost the ring. I lost it when I was washing my hands in the restroom of a department store in Portland where I was with a friend. I took it off my finger because I didn't want to wet the piece of cloth I was stuffing it with because the ring was too big for me and I just forgot it on the sink. When I returned a few minutes later, it was sadly gone. That was the last time I saw the ring. I was so angry, but Shawn wasn't. He never confronted me about losing the ring," the woman recalled.

Debra left a contact at the mall in case anyone found the jewelry. However, no one has called back. She eventually married Shawn in 1977, four years later. They stayed together for forty years before Shawn died three years ago after a six-year battle with cancer.

The woman had almost forgotten about the ring by the time the news came from Finland. Marko Saarinen found it near the woods when he went on a foraging walk with a metal detector. At first he thought it was a toy from a vending machine. He'd already recovered coins and bottle tops, but nothing of value. "I realised the ring wasn't just a trinket when I started to examine what was engraved on it. It was Morse High School, the year 1973 and the initials S.M. That was enough for me to start looking for the owner. I posted a picture of the ring on social media," the finder said.

He was contacted by alumni who helped in the search for the original owner of the ring. It wasn't hard at all because the class in question didn't have any other men with the initials S.M. "I'm happy I was able to send the ring to Mrs. McKenna. I hope it will make her feel that her husband is still with her," Saarinen said. How the ring got to Finland remains a mystery.

Sources: www.wtva.com, www.independent.co.uk