A British Columbia woman who lost her diamond ring after accidentally donating it along with her spare change has been reunited with the piece of jewelry.
Last week, Trinda Gajek of Salt Spring Island saw a man in Nanaimo who looked like he might need some spare change. She asked the man if he needed some money and then gave him all the change in her wallet. It wasn’t until later that she remembered her diamond ring had also been in her wallet and the ring was missing.
On Tuesday, Gajek was reunited with the ring after a homeless man named Raymond and his friend Willy took it upon themselves to find it.
“I was thrilled,” Gajek said in a phone interview with CTV News. “There’s a million storylines as to where this ring could’ve ended up.”
Gajek says Raymond and Willy drove to the outskirts of Nanaimo on a whim when they realized the description they had of the man reminded them of someone they knew named Brett. Sure enough, Brett had the ring, and not knowing what to do with it, kept it in his water bottle so he wouldn’t lose it. Brett handed the ring over to the two men, who in turn gave it back to Gajek.
“It’s really fascinating and wonderful and I feel incredibly grateful for all of the people that came together to make it happen,” she said. “It’s totally amazing that this happened for me, at Christmas time.”
Gajek says she plans to visit Brett on Wednesday evening to say thanks and give him a little extra money for keeping the ring all this time.
Gajek says the ring has a “huge amount of sentimental value.” A few years ago, her two children pooled their money together to help pay for it when they saw how much their mother liked the ring, but couldn’t afford it for herself.
“They were hell-bent on making sure I didn’t leave without the ring.”
In a separate gesture of kindness, Gajek says a jewelry maker in Vancouver heard about her story and offered to re-create the ring for free, which Gajek estimates would have cost upwards of $5,000.
