The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
A REDISCOVERED TREASURE
City woman reunites man with lost class ring
TORRINGTON — Roland Lehmann graduated from Torrington High School in 1961. Soon after, he went swimming at Mount Tom in Holyoke, Mass., and lost his newly earned class ring.
“I didn’t have the ring no time before I lost it after graduation. I’d say within two months after I graduated I lost that ring,” Lehmann said.
Decades later, Torrington resident Jennifer Lucia and her family went swimming at Mount Tom, where they go every year on the Fourth of July. Her little cousin and son found something shining in the water — a class ring, bearing mysterious initials and the year of its origin, from her city.
Her cousin wanted to sell it, but Lucia had other plans — she wanted to find the owner.
“I’m like, no, it’s a class ring,” Lucia said. “If it was a normal gold ring in the water, yes, it’s yours. But this is sentimental to somebody.”
But before she could do that, the ring was lost again.
Lucia misplaced it on her way home, and after racking her brain trying to remember where she put it, figured it was gone for good. But two years later, earlier this month, it turned up in her desk — a mystery once again.
“This past weekend, I was cleaning out my desk, and I found it — it was just right there,” Lucia said. “I have no idea how it would’ve gotten in my desk, because it wasn’t like I put it in there ... for safekeeping. I don’t even know how it showed up there.”
Lucia then began to search for the owner.
She called Torrington High School, and a secretary reported there was one member of the Class of the 1961 with those initials and offered the contact information of the class president, who, in turn, had an address for Lehmann. She found several phone numbers with that information online — most were disconnected, but one went straight to voicemail.
Unsure whether that line was still good, she turned to Facebook and found a recently opened account for Roland Lehmann, a Torrington native now
living in Alabama, as well as his wife. Through Facebook and the number that went to voicemail, she ended up getting in touch with
Roland and his wife, Mona. It was a match.
Lehmann said he was surprised that someone had found his ring and was offering it back to him — someone likely would have pocketed it over the years, he said.
Lucia was happy to help, she said — if it had been her, she would have wanted the ring back.
“I struggle in life, and I’m a single mom, and I go through a lot,” Lucia said. “And I can’t help people a lot, like financially or anything like that. A lot of people help me out. (It) makes me feel good that I can actually help somebody out and change their life, like these people.”
Lehmann said he’s glad to get the ring back — his wife, Mona, has “just about claimed it” from him already — although, given the years, it doesn’t carry as much meaning.
He was more struck by Lucia’s efforts to give it back to him — they’re going to stay in touch, he said.
“I think most people, if they found a ring like that, they’d either keep it for themselves or pawn it or something like that,” Lehmann said. “I think she’s a great person, to do all that she did. I just think a lot of her for what she did. And we’re going to stay in contact ... we haven’t decided exactly what we’re going to do there, but she hasn’t heard the last of us.”
Lucia said she considered all of this unlikely, given all that could have occurred, and what needed to happen for her to find the owner. But it all fell into place.
“I never would in a million years think, especially after all these years — I mean, five years, 10 years, maybe, but 57 years?” Lucia said. “I’m still in awe that it’s actually happening.”