Mystery of missing ring solved
Clarenville High Class of '84 token returned to woman 20 years later
UPPER ISLAND COVE — Giselle Wiseman never thought she would see her high school ring again.
But, however improbable, her class of 1984 Clarenville High class ring is back in her possession after being lost 20 years ago in Yellowknife.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she says.
Wiseman grew up in Shoal Harbour, and after graduating from high school she attended trade school in Bonavista to become a hairdresser. She got married, had a daughter and moved to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories — living there for more than 20 years.
On the day the ring was lost in 2000, it was actually Wiseman’s daughter, Kristi Mercer, who was responsible.
Looking back now, Wiseman joked, “She’s lucky she’s still alive.”
Mercer says she knows she shouldn’t, as a young teen, have been wearing the beautiful ring with the bright blue stone, but decided to take it without telling her mom.
Wiseman still remembers her daughter coming to her to tell her she had lost the ring.
“She was pretty sheepish that day. … I was not impressed, to say the least.”
They searched everywhere for the ring, and stayed tuned to the "lost and found" segment on the local radio station, but eventually gave up hope of ever finding it.
Wiseman moved home to Newfoundland and Labrador in 2008 after her daughter, now a nurse, decided to move back to the province with her family.
They settled in Upper Island Cove, Conception Bay.
Wiseman hadn’t really thought about the ring much for several years, until she received a message on Facebook from one of her former classmates.
There was a post for the missing ring on a class page for Clarenville High. Wiseman recognized it right away, as the ring bore her initials.
“When I looked at it, I started screaming, scaring the life out of Kristi and my granddaughter."
She quickly messaged the person who had posted the inquiry. It turns out the ring had also made a move from Yellowknife over the years.
The person who found it 20 years ago in Yellowknife took out a lost-and-found classified ad in the local newspaper, but didn’t connect with Wiseman.
She eventually moved to British Columbia.
When the woman’s daughter was recently going through her jewelry box, she discovered the ring and thought she’d give it another try before possibly getting rid of it.
People connected to Clarenville High tracked Wiseman down.
She says it’s all thanks to the power of social media.
“Facebook can be a very powerful thing. It can be a pain … but it can be powerful.”
Last week, Wiseman received the ring in the mail. The envelope contained a note from the sender, saying they were glad to have been able to reunite her with the keepsake.
“It was definitely very nice of her to even look,” said Wiseman.
There is some precedence for rings recovered decades later in Wiseman’s family.
Earlier in January she was in Clarenville visiting her parents. They were talking about a story about her grandmother, who had lost her wedding ring when she was pregnant with a son, Wiseman’s uncle.
“Believe it or not, 20 years later he was out digging in the garden and found it. And within a few days, I’m getting my ring back, (also) 20 years later.
“It was really weird.”
Wiseman says her high school ring is in mint condition and still fits.
“I’m relieved now that I have it back.”
And when her daughter asked her, jokingly, if she could wear it, Wiseman replied, "Not if you value your life, you won’t.”