The kindness of strangers...

When my husband and I were first dating, he started the tradition of the crappy rings. Once each vacation, he would buy me a really cheap ring. Secretly, I hoped that it would lead to one a little more expensive; it did, but I had to wait many years for it. The year we traveled the Rockies from Waterton Lakes National Park of Canada to Yellowstone, he bought me a ring in a little shop in downtown Waterton. He broke tradition by paying more than $5.00 for it, it actually cost $10.99. It was a work of art. A line of stones, each as large as a grape seed, raised in the middle in a platinum colored setting. All the way from Waterton to Yellowstone National Park I would hold it up in front of his face and say “see?” He said it blinded him. Gaudy? Yes, but so much more exotic than the silver and turquoise rings he had been buying me – this one had stones. Surely a move in the right direction. In the LaMar Valley in Yellowstone, I slipped off the ring, put it in my lap, and slathered on some hand cream. Only after we stopped for pie in Silver Gate, Montana did I realize I had lost my precious ring. We stopped in several stores to post a reward for its return. Imagine posting a $50.00 reward for a $10.00 ring? We went over the parking lot with a fine tooth comb. No luck. When we got home I found the receipt with the item number on it and I wrote to the shop. I told them I would replace the ring at any cost, gave them my phone number, asked them to call me collect for a credit card number if they had another one. I didn’t hear anything from them. Weeks later I received a slightly torn envelope which contained a gold ring with lots of stones and an apologetic letter from a young woman who worked in the souvenir shop in Waterton. She was very sorry they didn’t have another ring like the one purchased. She hoped this ring would take its place. No charge. So, if you ever get the opportunity to watch old episodes of Due South and they talk about the niceness of the Canadians, believe it. I still have that ring, it reminds me there are wonderful people in this world and they appear to you when you least expect it.