Is this your ring?

Here at St. Anthony Foundation we receive many donations from people in thanksgiving for articles that they have miraculously found after praying to St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost articles. We often smile after reading such stories, thinking “well, it was probably a coincidence” or “they would have eventually found the article anyway.” Let me relate a personal story that happened to me and my niece back in 2003. She and her husband were visiting from New York in February of that year. We decided to drive up to Tahoe for some sightseeing. While we were eating lunch at one of the restaurants in Tahoe I noticed a worried look suddenly come across my niece’s face. “Oh no! My ring!” she exclaimed as she felt the ring finger of her left hand, now missing her diamond engagement ring. Her husband Billy and I quized her on where she might have last left the diamond ring. She couldn’t remember and we decided to search every inch of my car for the missing diamond ring. “St. Anthony help us find the missing ring” I muttered under my breath as we looked and looked. We finally decided to backtrack to every place we visited. It was a sad drive back to the shores of Lake Tahoe. I surveyed the shore, covered in snow. Where do we begin to search? I decided to walk down the wooden stairs to the snowy shore. On the way down I spotted a glint. There below me, by the rail was the diamond ring half buried in the snow! I seized it and hid it in my hand. I looked at my niece and her husband in the distance still frantically searching for the ring. “Let’s just go home. We’re not going to find anything here,” I said dejectedly to my niece. She wasn’t ready to give up her search but decided to follow my advice. With the three of us inside the car I suddenly asked my niece who was seated behind me “is this your ring?”, showing her my right hand with the diamond ring on the little finger. He face lit up and she suddenly hugged me from behind, crying in joy for her diamond ring. All three of us celebrated the find. Now whenever I come across a tale of someone who found a lost article by praying to St. Anthony, I recall that February day by the shores of Lake Tahoe when a small miracle happened because I said a prayer to St. Anthony.