Some people say that there are no such things as miracles, but I believe that miracles happen every day, if we only know how to see them.

I wear two rings on my right hand – my Nana’s antique ring, and my wedding ring. They sit comfortably next to each other as reminders of two special people I love who are no longer on this earth. A few hours before my Nana died, the nurse took the ring off her finger as her hands began to swell. I put it onto my right hand for safe keeping and that is where it has remained. When my husband died just over a year later, I moved my wedding ring next to it. I have almost lost both rings before, but they came back to me.

Last week Tuesday, I had a few errands to run in the nearby town before driving to the airport to fetch a friend. After I had been to three different places, I dropped the girls at ballet before heading to the airport. It was only when I turned onto the highway that I noticed there was something missing. There was a black hole in my Nana’s ring where the beautiful rectangular aquamarine stone should have been. My heart sank. Where had it fallen out? How would I find it? I tried to calm down with self talk. It was only a physical thing. It wasn’t the end of the world. It would be okay. Perhaps I would still find it.

As the days went by, I grew less hopeful. We searched every place where I had been that day. I had gone through my handbag and car with a fine tooth comb. Still, I continued to wear the ring with its empty space in the hope that the stone might find its way back to me. Though I felt sad, I tried to remind myself that things aren’t as important as people, and I will always have my Nana and her memories even without her ring. I also asked her, if she has such powers on the other side, to try and make sure that if I wasn’t to find the stone, that someone who really needed it would find it, so that it could at least help another family.

Today, six days after the stone went missing, I was on the phone to a good friend relaying the story to her. I explained that I was still wearing the empty ring, and would only take it off when I believed that the stone was truly gone and there was no chance of finding it again. After we had spoken for a while, my girls walked into the room with three of their friends. I gave them the signal that I wasn’t to be disturbed as I was on the phone, but they only smiled and said, “I think you will want to hear this Mom.” And then a little boy opened his hand and inside his sweaty palm, sat my shiny little aquamarine stone. I screamed with delight, shouting into the phone. I could hardly believe my eyes!

Later, the little boy showed me where he had found it on the brick paving outside the kitchen door. A place I have swept furiously several times in the last few days. It seemed impossible that it could have stayed there through the wind, the rain, and all my sweeping. The more I thought about it, the more impossible it seemed and as I sat outside with a cup of coffee, I wondered… Could my Nana have put it there? Or at least protected it so that the broomstick hadn’t sent it flying off into the garden never to be found again. However it happened is still a mystery, but for me there is no doubt that it is a true miracle. My Nana must have known that I was the person who needed it the most.