It was just a fun, happy discovery. We went to this thrift store so much,
it was just cool to find something of value like that.
Immediately I was like, what? Valuables envelope? What could it be?
James and I had just started dating back in Washington, D.C.
and one of my favorite things to do is go thrift shopping.
And I was going through a real suitcase kick, and we found a few that day,
and since we were courting, James was a gentleman and paid for my thrifted suitcases.
I took them home. This is the suitcase.
Robert Roland is on it. A lot of suitcases have names on them.
But I opened it up and felt around in the pockets and found the ring.
It says Mae Warner, received by Carolyn somebody, March 24, 1983.
And looked at it and thought, 'Is this a sign?'
I remember putting it on my finger and taking a picture and thinking,
should I send this or is that creepy?
And I don't remember if i sent it or not.
Yeah, I think you sent it.
I should also add that, James and I are now married, so it was a sign.
Yeah, it worked out, it was leaning in the right direction.
So I was like, should I keep it? Should I try and find Mae Warner? What should I do with this?
And eventually decided that it should go home.
I have a really sweet feeling about this person I know nothing about.
I just picture a Donna Reed show scenario, you know, black and white, nice 50s hair.
So I tried to find Mae Warner, spent about maybe 15 minutes
googling, and I was like, no I can't, this is hard.
When we moved to Portland and I, you know, saw Samantha's story,
there was something at the end maybe that said like, found a ring? You know, reach out.
I had three names to work with. Mae Warner,
but there are so many Mae Warners who have lived in Maryland or Virginia or the D.C. area.
The name on the outside of the suitcase was Robert Roland, but there are so many Robert Rolands.
After months of tracing various Maes and Roberts I decided to try and find Carolyn.
There was a Carolyn Danek who died in a car crash in 1985.
Her death certificate listed her job. She worked at a nursing home,
and she lived in Loudoun County, Virginia.
Based on that, I was able to pinpoint a Mae Warner who had lived in that same county
and would have been the right age to be in a nursing home around 1983.
Mae died in 1989. Her death certificate had information provided by a Jeanne A. Roland,
who was married to a Robert Roland.
Both of the Rolands had died, but I found Robert's obituary which listed his surviving children.
Well, when I first saw it, you know, you automatically go to scam,
and so when I was first reading it, I'm like well, you know, what scam is this.
It wasn't fancy or big, they never had a lot of money, you know.
They had a huge garden up in Fargo, North Dakota where they lived most of their lives.
He read water meters for the gas company and she was a housewife.
When they could no longer live alone, then they came down to Virginia to live with my parents.
My grandfather passed away, then my grandmother went to
the nursing home because she had got dementia, but she was in her 90s.
We moved my parents in with with my sister
and she remembers taking some of the old suitcases to one of the thrift stores.
Before we mailed the ring back to Suzi,
I took it to a local jeweler to get it cleaned and appraised.
I'm David Margulis. I'm the owner of Margulis Jewelers.
The center diamond in this ring comes from the period of 1917.
It's an old European cut diamond that you can date by the faceting on the center diamond.
However, the original ring might have worn out from 1917
and then this diamond was reset into this ring mounting.
The style of this mounting comes from the 1960s.
It looks like it's a quarter of a carat or less, so it was a modest sized diamond.
A gold ring from 1917 worn every day
could last 30 years, 40 but it's really a stretch to make it to 50.
As a used ring, it would probably sell in the $500 to $600 area as a used ring.
So I just got the ring back. It's been cleaned,
it looks really great, and I am going to mail it to Suzi in North Carolina.
So I received this envelope in the mail from Samantha. Here's the ring. It's a modest little
diamond engagement ring that belonged to my grandmother who lived in Fargo, North Dakota.
So thank you so much for returning this to us. It obviously has sentimental value, and
it's a cute little ring and it might even, might even be nice for a pinky ring.
Anyway, thank you very much.
My ring someday, I hope goes to my daughter,
and if I lose it, I just really hope that someone would
do as much work as, you know, you've done, and hang on to it, so that it gets back to the family.
One of the things that are so important to people when they
inherit, or it's a family jewel, is that they can remember their father wearing it
or their mother wearing it or their grandmother wearing it, and subconsciously it builds a really
important connection between that person and what they saw them wearing day in and day out.
And so that's why these rings that are found are so significant.