A cherished anniversary ring taken from a Saskatoon hospital room was returned to the owner just minutes before he died on Saturday.
Larry Beaucage died of cancer just minutes after his wife Gail slipped his diamond-and-gold ring back onto his finger.
The ring, a gift from Gail on their 50th wedding anniversary, was in her purse when it was snatched last week from St. Paul’s Hospital.
Gayle had been helping her husband in the washroom when the purse was taken.
Larry’s family filed a police report and issued an emotional public appeal for help finding the ring.
Police later found the purse on a balcony, but the ring wasn't in it.
Officers then located the ring in a pawn shop, and gave it back to the family.
Gail Beaucage was able to place the ring back on her husband’s finger. He died only minutes later, the family said.
“(The ring is) very important to all my family and it was important to him,” Gail said Saturday. “I think maybe that’s why he wasn’t going.”
The couple’s son, Darcey, said last week that the family was devastated by the theft.
"How could somebody go into a ward knowing that people are there to die and strip a wife, a mother, a grandmother of her dignity?" Darcey said.
Though she's grieving, Gail says she’s happy to know that she can hold the ring this spring, on the day that would have been their 60th wedding anniversary.
With a report from CTV Saskatoon
