A Scots widow believes she has been given “affirmation” from her late husband to move on with her life after finding his wedding ring that she lost two weeks on from his death.
Janet Darby thought she’d lost husband Jim’s ring forever back on October 22 during a busy day in North Berwick sorting the order of services for his funeral - after one firm botched the printing job - and running errands.
The 59-year-old had been to a local jeweller that day to measure the ring for resizing but decided to keep it on her middle finger so she could wear it to his cremation three days later.
But she noticed it missing later that night and reckoned it may have slipped off as she stopped on the beach to take pictures while walking back from another printing shop in town who were fixing the order of services.
However she was delighted on Thursday when the ring appeared in a box in her garage that she was using to take items to a charity shop, as she packed up ahead of a move down to Yorkshire next week.
Speaking to the Record on Friday, she said: "I noticed the ring straight away but it took a while to register what it was. I was not looking for it and thought I'd never see it again.
"I was obviously delighted to find it and I think Jim would approve of me getting on with my life and clearing out and moving on. It felt like an affirmation that this was the right thing to do.
“The only reason I picked up these boxes is because I was moving. Had I not been I don’t know how long it would have been there for.
“During that day in October I remember coming back from scurrying around town and I had a friend coming to stay. I needed to clear out space in the bedroom for her to stay and was quickly tidying up some bits and bobs and was putting some things in the garage and I must have put them in that box.
“Some people have said to put the ring on a necklace but I have got it tucked behind my own wedding ring where it’s not going to go anywhere.
Mrs Darby, an acupuncturist, is moving from her home near the Leuchie estate in East Lothian to Yorkshire on Wednesday.
She plans to teach college students at the Wirral, near Liverpool, at weekends and work up in Glasgow and Edinburgh during the week.
She decided to make the move following the death of her husband Jim - who was 83, had Type 2 diabetes and died as a result of complications from his condition. Pneumonia was also listed as a cause of death.
Mr Darby was admitted to the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh in early August with a bladder infection and stayed there for seven weeks before moving home to be with Janet.
The couple were married for 34 years and lived in North Berwick’s Melbourne Street in the 1990s where they ran a joint practice offering massage physiotherapy and acupuncture. They then spent 20 years in Australia and Singapore before returning to East Lothian.
The lost wedding ring itself was specially made in the jewellery quarter in Birmingham and Janet has one the same.
Mrs Darby says she will look into getting her husband’s wedding ring resized once she moves down to Yorkshire.
The couple, who were both keen hill runners and modern pentathletes, met in Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire in the late 1970s when Jim came there to present her with a medal for a third placed finish.
They tied the knot in 1987 at the Tipton Harriers running club in the West Midlands before moving up to Scotland soon after.
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