A Tale of Our Forefathers
At Valley Forge in the bitter winter of 1777, George Washington carried his late father’s gold wedding band on a cord beneath his coat, a small reminder of family and duty amid the suffering of his army, but one night while moving through the snowbound encampment to comfort quarreling soldiers, he discovered it was gone, likely slipped into the drifts; though he searched frantically in the freezing dark, the ring seemed lost to the storm until, at dawn, a young soldier returned it to him, found half-buried near a frozen creek, and Washington, clutching the tarnished band, felt a renewed strength to endure and lead, knowing even in the bleakest hours, hope could be restored.
Just kidding, her name was Moira and she accidentally dropped her father’s band when it broke off her necklace at Valley Forge Park. Luckily, with permission from the park’s rangers we were allowed to bring a metal detector on site and retrieve the ring.
The gentleman, who preferred to stay anonymous, gave me a call last week as he had lost his wedding band! He had hosted his daughters birthday party in their backyard and between buckets of ice, setting up the outdoor projection movie theater for the kids, and all the clean up, he had a few ideas where it could be but had not had any luck. I came by the following afternoon and started by walking the property with him and trying to get an idea for where it might be, then he left me to work and less than an hour later I was able to locate it. The ring had slipped off near where he had been dumping the coolers out! I was glad to have made this recovery and reunited this special wedding band with the owner.
