Thanks to an incredible stroke of luck, an Alabama woman has been reunited with her high school class ring -- more than 40 years after losing it, WSFA 12 News reports.
Betty Black said she lost her ring 43 years ago during a friendly game of softball. "I thought I would never see the ring again," she said, adding that a search for the missing piece of jewelry had been unsuccessful at the time.
But the saga of the lost ring was far from over.
Last year, Black's daughter married a man named Wendell Watkins. Watkins's family happens to own the land where Black's ring had been lost.
When he heard about his mother-in-law's long lost ring, he decided to try and find it.
But after more than four decades of storms, clearing trees and planting crops, it was going to be a daunting task.
"I walked out on the land and tried to figure out how the softball field was laid out," Watkins told WSFA 12 News. "I found the pitchers mound and then figured out where the backstop was."
Ten minutes later, Watkins said he noticed something odd in the ground.
"I saw something that looked out of place in the dirt," he said. "I brushed the dirt off and saw '59."
It was Black's old ring.
"He put his fingers in his pocket and brought out the ring," said Black, recalling the surprise reunion. "I almost had a seizure…and I was crying. Really crying."
In February, The Huffington Post reported that another woman was reunited with her 1959 class ring after it was found by a fourth grade boy.