"...And they all lived happily ever after"

The article I have written below (entitled ".... And they all lived happily ever after" appeared across the entire front page of 'The Beacon' (Massachusetts newspaper) on August 11, 1994 ... 5 days after Charlie and I were wed.

I would have posted a link to the article, but unfortunately, The Beacon's online archives don't go back that far. I bought ~100 of the newspapers, and had one of them framed. The article is hanging in our hallway - and almost all the visitors to our home (that weren't at our wedding) who read it ... don't believe it's true.

Trust me. It is.



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"The added sparkle at Jennifer's wedding on Saturday might have been the ring on her finger. Or a gleam of relief in the eye of the bridegroom William Charles, who lost that ring - along with his own - while running an errand in Acton the week before.

A frantic William Charles called this newspaper, August 2 as the days ticked down to the cermony. He knew that he had put the velvet bag containing $5,000.00 worth of gold and diamond rings in his pocket before he set out to pick up his fiancee's sister at her apartment on Great Road. But somewhere along the way - at the apartment, or at the Acton town dump, where they made a brief stop - the bag vanished.

While he checked and rechecked his car, his pockets and the house where he was staying, Acton resident John Paine spotted a wet and shapeless cloth bag at the town dump.

"Something just caught my eye," he said. "A little gray jeweler's bag. I opened it just enough to see a flash of gold and thought it might be some cheap trinket, so I threw it on the front seat."

Back home, the Church Street resident opened the bag and found three gold rings - including a man's wedding band and two women's rings set with diamonds. They still flaunted price tags that totaled $5,000.00.

"My first thought was, they must be hot", Paine said.

He tried to figure out the name of the jeweler from the lettering on the bag, making out a K and a few other letters. But a check of the local phone book didn't offer any likely possibilities. It turned out the rings were from a shop named Kebadjian Brothers on Washington Street in Boston.

His wife suggested he check the local newspaper and wondered what to do if no one turned up to claim them. "Then you can wear 'em, I told her," Paine said with a laugh.

Found valuables may ultimately belong to their finders, according to Raymond Gray, a detective with the Acton Police Department.

"You may keep them for a year, and you have to advertise what you have found," Gray said. Then, if no one can identify what has been found, the rule of "finders keepers" prevails.

But all Paine wanted to do was find the rightful owner.

"It wasn't my property," he said. "What am I going to do - hock 'em?"

He waited until Thursday, when the Beacon is published, and learned from his next door neighbor that the front page included an article about a couple searching for lost wedding rings. He called the number published in the article and the rings were back in William Charles' pocket that day.

"It was wonderful the way it turned out, it was just wonderful," said the mother of the bride. And then - as if the ring episode had absorbed all possible bad luck - the heat wave broke, the rain cleared, the ceremony went forward without a hitch.

"It all just went like clockwork," said the mother of the bride. "Everything was just perfect and they went happily off for a honeymoon on Nantucket."

"I felt like it was my contribution to the wedding," said Paine, who did have one last piece of advice for William Charles.

"When he came by to pick up the rings on Thursday, he told me he was going to his bachelor's party that night. I told him 'You drive home and put those rings in a safe place first. Then go to the bachelor's party."

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Bride - Yours truly.

Bridegroom - My Charlie.

Happily Ever After?

You bet. 12-years and counting ...

Happy Anniversary MG - I love you with all my heart. I'm sorry I didn't buy you a card. Hopefully, this makes up for it. :o) <--- that's a smiley face. Wink, wink.