Losing a cell phone by dropping it in the toilet happens more often than you'd think. So does losing a ring. Finding an engagement ring after 36 years just doesn't happen--especially when it's stuck in a toilet. More unbelievable may be the honesty from Terry Claver, who may be looking for a diamond upgrade after public statement about the discovery. It is the thought that counts.
In 1973, Terry and Donna Claver met as teenagers and dated just three times before deciding they'd each discovered true love in Stanford, Montana. Along came an engagement -- and a ring. Diamonds may be forever but they're also more costly. And apparently sapphires can also have some pretty damn good longevity.
A sapphire mounted on gold lasted a bit more than a year. Then that ring was lost before the two-year mark.
Donna Claver was pregnant, and apparently a busy woman. She'd just applied hand lotion before dropping her engagement ring -- into a toilet where she'd set the ring down on the back of a tank. She tried to grab it but fate proved faster. And it wasn't for lack of trying. Claver didn't prove queasy about toilets. She stuck her hand into the bowl, in efforts of retrieval when she felt the ring with a fingertip but couldn't get the wedged band loose. But efforts didn't end there.
That was in 1974 when the couple literally drained the toilet, shook it, and tried everything possible to free the ring. Then they moved.
The couple needed more space, relocating from the single-bedroom home in Stanford where they'd been living together as teenagers. While they may have moved out, they didn't move far. While living nearby in Montana, the married spouses saw owners come and go -- until the spot eventually served as a hunting cabin. Flash-forward to three decades later: The hunters asked Terry Claver to come to their place, in order to fix a bathroom faucet. Claver was interested in more, tempted to scope out the guilty toilet, but didn't want to invade the owners' space. But when that space became public Claver spotted his opportunity when, one day, he saw the toilet leave.
Terry Claver had a bird's-eye-view, in the midst of repairing a neighborhood roof as he spied a hunter with toilet in hand. the man was carting out the old, broken bathroom fixture that suddenly needed replacement after a hard winter's night or two, and freeze. Claver offered to take over disposal and loaded it onto his truck. Even a toilet sees its final day. Call it fate.
A solid whack with a sledgehammer and good swing proved that the toilet responsible for separation had actually done a pretty good job of keeping things together for nearly four decades: Where the hole had been, before the whack, is where the ring was wedged. And, all considered, in good condition. Amazingly, it wasn't even the era of low-flush toilets.
The Montana man says the jewelry find brought back feelings from when the two were kids and had first met. And those good feelings sparked Terry Claver to call to his wife upon discovery -- to ask her, once again, to marry him. It's a beautiful story. But the most beautiful, and humorous, part may be Claver's voiced insights on love and partnership.
Claver calls the recent 2011 ring discovery "a gift from God that made those feelings strong again," and has this to say: “Every marriage goes through its seasons. Sometimes you think everything the other person does is cute, and other times you can’t stand to be around them." Amen, Mr Claver. But while some things are universally understood, those things can be better not stated.
Now look to the heavens for some cash to be flowing from the sky, Mr Claver. You may be needing it to fund a diamond ring upgrade in the forthcoming Valentine's Day "season".