The Lost Ring (A Love Story), 1970s, by Anonymous

From MemoryArchive

Who: A man
What: A love story
When: 30 years ago
Where: In Canada

He was only 17 and she was 14... He was to graduate this year and she wondered what she would do after he left, since she had been in the same high school as him for 3 years, but she was too young for him so he never noticed HE was 'the love of HER life' as she would giggle about with her friends. It was just a matter of time she would catch up to him.. and make him notice her! As well, they came from different worlds but it didnt matter. He was an athlete, THE hockey star for his high school years now. She would never miss a game unless very obliged and when he went into the showers to change, she hid partially outside behind the last locker, as she always did, to see him put on his coat and leave the school.

That particular time, he started to put his coat on as we was walking towards the outside door when she noticed he dropped something on the floor; he didnt hear the noise, as other players were leaving and other students chatting about the game. She ran to pick up what he had dropped with only one intention.... to give it back... she bent and picked it up and realized it was his graduation ring and held it tightly in her hand... she was sure she had yelled his name to give the ring back, but later realized she never did.. she had frozen there, warmed up by his ring and thinking in a couple of days, she would approach him and give it back to him.

One day much later in time, I was with him; he was my favorite uncle... never married and now retired from a very successful lifetime career... 35 years in a high profile position... somehow, he never had time for anything but a casual date here and there, as he was consumed by his work, a staunch perfectionist... Sure he had lady friends - with his looks and his intellect, the invitations werent lacking... but his work was his mistress and his hobby wasnt hockey anymore, he had long gone to college and had learned the piano... and in fact, taught it at times, after being coaxed into it by a special friend here and there... Somehow, love never came to him... He lived alone in a perfectly perfect apartment, playing his piano for us or sitting there alone absorbed in who knows what dreams, or where his mind was travelling.

I was then around 30 some years old and never failed to visit him at least once a month.. sometimes he didnt have much to say, but as he was retired, he took pleasure in listening to my adventures and stories from my work, sometimes blessing me with his wise advice... I had had a very difficult childhood and my teen years were not that great... I was popular however with the young men.. and had been married twice... When I would relate stories of my 'dates' with men and my divorce, he would make like he was shocked, but I knew he understood me well.. I loved him dearly.

So that day, he asked me to go to the mailbox downstairs and check his mail... I didnt mind running down the three storeys stairs to the main floor, to help him.. To me, although only close to his sixties... he was 'old'... he was a man loved by all, never raising his voice, never chastizing anyone...

I came upstairs with 3 envelopes... he opened the first one and said.. 'ahh... another bill'... a thing I was used to hear by now.... looked at the second and third one... the second one he said was just another advertisement. But the third one... beautifully handwritten, was addressed to him... and marked personal, with a small note to return to sender if the recipient had moved.. So strange though, he could feel that in this brown enveloppe, there was something in it...

He was baffled a bit by this... and I was watching his quizical look as he kept looking at the address, touching the corner where the unknown item was, rubbing it, still trying to figure out whose handwriting this was.. and most of all... was this a joke someone played on him..

I was starting to be curious and said.. 'Uncle, if you dont open it, you'll never know what it is..' He looked at me approvingly... 'you're right he said, but perhaps I should open it alone?'to which I replied, 'of course, I'm sorry'. It never dawned on me this could be private... 'I'll leave and perhaps one day, you'll tell me what it is'!!!

As I got up, he was starting to open the brown envelope and I heard him say... 'honey, if you want to stay, please do as you would be doing me a great favor if you read it to me since my 'old' eyes may not be able to read such a small, feminine handwriting...'

He then opened the envelope fully, took a three page letter out... and then balanced the envelope so the item would fall into the palm of his hand and this is when he saw the ring... He stared at it for what seemed the longest time... and broke the silence .. He said... 'I often wondered where I had lost this ring, my graduation ring, and I cant believe Im looking at it, holding it'!!! He said he had long searched for it... but had given up after a few weeks, and forgotten throughout the years that it ever existed.

As he passed over the letter to me.. he held and watched the ring, seemingly 'toying' with it... and I started reading... although this is not word for word, as I am 60 now.. the following is very close to the reality.

Dear xxxx:

I have cancer and I am told I do not have long to live and I realized that I couldnt leave this world and meet my Master face to face if I didnt let go of this item and returned it to its original owner before I died. Let me inform you I found this article.. I didnt steal it, I just didnt want to let go of it, try as I may. The sin I committed was theft, a small sin, but one that filled my heart with joy.

My name is xxx and I am sure it means nothing to you as we have never met... When I was in high school, I fell in love with you but you were 'much older' for me... When I graduated, I went to a classical college and one night, when there was a performance of a Shakespearian play, I saw you there with a girl. My heart stopped beating as I had not forgotten about you and was aware of the path you were following, through news from my friends who knew how much I cared for you. After the second act, when we took a break, I went towards you to look at you again and you glanced at me. Although with what I felt was your date, you smiled at me and my heart melted.. and we both went our way... I then realized, I would love you forever and indeed I did, and do.... I never married and dedicated my life to teaching. How could I even want to meet another man, when my heart was taken.. and nearly each night before going to bed, I took the ring in my hand and held it and thought of you....sometimes falling asleep with it, my fingers clutched around it in a fist...

Now as I am close to having to account for my sins -- and I will have to account for a long sin that is now part of me... I am returning your graduation ring. It fell one day in the corridor and no one noticed; Often I wanted to go to you and return the ring, but if I had done that, I felt I couldnt have gone on. Now its time for me to make peace with my heart and my soul. I always loved you. I can assure you I am very sorry for what I did. Now I give it back and ask you to forgive someone you dont know for 'stealing' your memory of your graduation and those that would have perhaps come when you looked at it, but someone who always loved you and remained faithful only to you. Never did I experience a kiss, or the love of another man... You were my only love.

I can die in peace now knowing I am free and have no regrets. Be well...

and it was signed:

with love forever, xxx

I hadnt noticed I was crying as I read the letter... but most of all, I had forgotten my uncle was listening and at the end, I looked at him as I sacredly folded the letter to give it back and realized.... he was also crying, and staring at the ring....

No.. there is no good or bad ending...just a sad one. But the mystery of the missing ring was elucided... my uncle went back in his mind, trying to remember the name as the bottom of the letter, but in the end, he had to admit, he didnt know her.. nor where she had lived, nor of her great love for him....

The strangest thing is... without knowing eachother, neither one had married, and both of them had spent their lives in their work, never relinquishing their heart to anyone else.

I always thought, it was the most beautiful love story I would ever hear of in my life, or see at the movies... it remains that way.... except.. for the love my husband and I share today, as I just turned sixty....