It Still Fits — Woman Finds Long-Lost Engagement Ring On Carrot In Her Garden

Jun 04, 2021 by apost team

Jewelry goes missing all the time — it's incredibly common for someone's earring to have fallen off without them noticing, or perhaps a necklace came loose while swimming. Unfortunately, precious jewelry, including engagement and wedding rings, is just as likely to suffer the same fate.

That was the case for Mary Grams of Alberta, Canada, who lost her engagement ring while gardening at the Grams family farm in 2004. The moment became one of the worst mistakes of her life. Grams searched for hours for the lost ring to no avail.

In an attempt to save her husband's feelings, Grams quietly purchased a smaller version of the ring she'd lost, which she proceeded to wear without informing her husband what had happened. Miraculously, her husband never spotted the difference between the lost ring and its less impressive replacement. Nine years ago, Grams' husband passed away, having never heard of the story of the ring.

After she'd lost the ring, Grams hoped that it would show up at some point but sadly it never did. Then, in a bizarre stroke of luck, her daughter-in-law was gardening in 2017 and came across a strange-looking carrot. The lumpy orange vegetable was shaped in an odd way and upon closer inspection, she noticed it was wearing a beautiful ring! Her husband, who is Grams' son, instantly knew it was his mother's ring.

After 13 years, Grams' long-lost engagement ring had been found in the oddest situation. But it turns out, she's not the only person who's ever found a lost ring on a carrot from her garden — there have been a few other instances where the same thing has happened to others around the world! 

Mary Grams told the CBC that she assumed the ring was gone forever, until that fateful day her daughter-in-law was pulling weeds on the family's property and spotted the oddest looking carrot. Pulling it out of the ground, the young woman was shocked to see her mother-in-law's ring around the carrot, which had grown right through the piece of jewelry to give the appearance of a large finger sporting a ring. Although Grams' husband never knew about what had happened, she had told her son Brian, who knew instantly what it was when his wife pulled up the ring-wearing carrot out of the garden.

Grams was utterly delighted to be reunited with her old ring, which she immediately put back in its rightful place on her finger. It even fit her just as it did 13 years earlier. Thinking she'd have to take it to the jeweler's to get it resized, Grams was stunned that she could put it on straight away.

In a somewhat bittersweet twist, Grams' late husband was never ultimately made aware that the ring his wife had worn for 13 years had been an imposter, as he passed away five years prior to the original ring's finding. Speaking with the BBC about never telling him, she said, "Maybe I did the wrong thing, but you get so worked up." Grams expressed that she wishes she'd told her husband when he was still alive and, in fact, he probably would have found it very funny, as she says he was a joker.  

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Nevertheless, Grams and her family are over the moon that the ring has finally been found, especially in such a random and unexpected situation. But believe it or not, this isn't the only example of a lost engagement ring showing up wrapped around a carrot in a garden patch somewhere. 

A similar occurrence happened in Sweden in 2011, reports the BBC, where a woman was reunited with the ring she'd lost in her vegetable garden 16 years prior. Another incident occurred in Germany where a wedding ring was found just three years after going missing. There's certainly something funny to be found in such situations, but perhaps more importantly, for anyone who has lost a ring in their garden the lesson is to plant carrots and maybe the ring will eventually show up on its own!

While little miracles like these do occur, it's best to take caution with jewelry when working in a garden or on a farm. Remove any special rings before gardening and keep them safely indoors to prevent something like this from happening to you. Grams has learned her lesson after her 13-year ordeal. She told the BBC:

"If I am going outside or anything I am going to put it in a safe space. That is what I should have done."

Hindsight is a powerful tool that allows us to look back and reflect on something we should have done differently. But in this case, we can all learn something from Grams' story without having to go through it ourselves.   

Has anything like this ever happened to you? We think all of the gardeners in your life would love to see this story — show this to anyone you know who has a green thumb!