The Lord of The Ring.....<br /><br />In 1957, he was eight years old . He lived in a furnished garden apartment on Elizabeth Street on the South side of Chicago with his mother and twin sister. One day, his mother and sister went shopping , leaving him home alone. Being adventurous and in need of pocket change, he thought he would check the cushions of the furniture . He didn't really remember finding too much in the way of coin, but he did find something that would haunt him for most of his life. In a big stuffed chair, he found a man's gold class ring. This ring was huge!, had a ruby stone, and was very heavy. Remember, he was eight years old! He thought , "Wow, I hit the mother load, I was rich, I could buy anything". Well, after reality set in (and a good talk with his mother) he came to know that a gold ring can't buy the world and who would want a gold class ring anyway. It only has special meaning to the person who earned it. Knowing that it would be impossible to find the owner, he threw it in a cigar box with his other personal stuff and went out to play......<br /><br />Over the years he had often stumbled across the ring and thought about trying to find the owner. Contact the university, try to find a man with the initials inscribed , graduated in '56. He said, "Yup, gotta do that some day", when he got the chance, when he got some time. You can guess what happened, right?? He tossed the ring back in the cigar box. There were many more important things going on, more important things to do, it could wait........and so it did.<br /><br />Fast forward to 2002. The eight year boy had grown into a mature man. He was educated, owned a business. He had a son graduating college and a married daughter and three grand kids. While looking through an old cardboard box, he again finds the cigar box of his youth and the ring. Through good times and bad , the ring had waited, and time moved on. Life had thrown him a few curve balls, like everyone gets, and recalls how he almost pawned the ring when he was 17 years old. Life was much too busy for a teenager to stop and attempt the impossible task of finding it's rightful owner, the ring could wait. The man looked at the ring and thought to himself about all the things that had happened to him in his life. The joys, the sorrows, the good times, and the bad. He pondered for a moment and realized that the ring was much more than just a ring. It was a link to his past, an anchor in time. Again, he thought about finding the owner, after all , the ring was never really his. He realized that the owner of the ring would be much older than himself and perhaps had died. He figured that if that was the case, perhaps the owners wife or children would like to have the ring. Finding the owner was worth a try. It was 2002, the world had changed, there were computers to help in the search, there was the Internet. <br /><br />The following day, he turned on his computer and found the web page to the university. He found a contact in the alumni department , her name was Amy. He told Amy the story of the ring and asked if she could help him find the owner. He told her the initials inscribed within the band and she agreed to return his call if she could find any information. They both agreed that after 45 years, the chances of finding the person were slim to none, but they had to try. <br /><br />Weeks passed, but he received no call. He decided to call Amy and get an update. Amy said that she found only one name with the initials in the ring and had mailed a letter to the last known address, but it came back as undeliverable. She said that she would post an announcement in the alumni paper and wait for any response. He asked for the man's name , but she wouldn't give out that information, university policy you know. So he waited and life went on. Months went buy, 24 months to be exact. It was now 2004 and he again called the university. Amy was still in the alumni department when he called. She told him that sadly, there had been no response to her attempts to find the gentleman and there was nothing she could do. She said , "You may as well just keep the ring, you'll never find him anyway, he's probably dead". He got pretty upset at hearing this and asked for the gentleman's name, that was the least she could do. She reluctantly gave him the name and said he graduated with a Bachelors in Physiology . He thanked her for all of her help and hung up the phone. <br /><br />He was excited to finally have just a few scraps of real information to help in his search. Although the name was not unique, it was soon apparent that finding the man would involve a bit of work and a lot of luck. He searched the Internet for a few days and after cross listing search results, he soon had a list of 75 names. He started calling the names on the list. The second call was to a small town in Texas. An elderly gentleman answered the phone. He asked the man a few questions and assured him that it wasn't some kind of a crank call.<br /><br />The gentleman confirmed his name and asked what all this was about. <br />The man explained that he was trying to find a gentleman who had once lived in Chicago many years ago. <br />The gentleman replied that he himself had lived in Chicago, many years ago. <br />The man asked if he had gone to college in Chicago.<br />The gentleman said, "Yes, I majored in Physiology and graduated with a Bachelors degree" He went on to say that he lived in a garden apartment on Elizabeth Street and married the girl who lived next door. He lived in the apartment for 6 months then moved away.<br /><br />The man couldn't believe his ears. He went on to explain that he had found the gentleman's ring 47 years ago. Needless to say, the elderly gentleman was dumbstruck and started to sob softly in disbelief. It was truly an emotional moment for both of them . Both exchanged e-mail addresses, phone numbers , and other information so they could reach each other. The old gentleman said that he is planning on returning to Chicago in August of 2004 to visit his sister. They plan on having a small family party so that both may finally meet and celebrate the return of ring to it's rightful owner<br />.....after 47 years...
