Lost and Found . . .  35 years later!

I could begin this story by saying that it all started with this July 23 Lake Viking Group Facebook Post: “Has anyone lost an Albany High School class ring at Beach One lately?” And with that simple question, a great saga began to unfold, a story that actually began 35 years ago … but anyway, back to the origins of the Facebook Post.

Mary and Flint Hibler’s 11-year-old grandson, Mason Hibler, was swimming and hanging out at Beach One, and as kids his age often do, scavenging around in the sand and rocks at water’s edge in search of treasures. As he ran his hand in the sand, Mason suddenly felt something, and when he pulled his hand out of the water, a ring had magically found its way around his finger. It was high school class ring from Albany, Missouri, class of 1982. The ring was dull and tarnished, as if it had been in the water a while, so the Hiblers took it home and began trying to clean it up with a toothbrush and toothpaste. In addition to the Albany High markings, Flint and his son David eventually found the initials C.W. When they brushed a little more, the name Chuck Wilkinson appeared.

Further work on Facebook uncovered a Chuck Wilkinson of Albany. Mary Hibler, unable to resist the element of ultimate surprise, sent a Chuck a “friend” request. Chuck thought about it — he was reluctant to “friend someone he didn’t know or hadn’t heard of” — but he accepted the request, and Mary immediately messaged him: “Did you lose something at Lake Viking a while ago?”

Chuck didn’t have any idea what Mary was talking about. True, his high school sweetheart had lost his ring a long time ago – she kept it on a chain around her neck – but she had no idea where she had misplaced it. When Mary asked Chuck about the class ring, he was overwhelmed. Yes, it was his. He had given it to Beth Ann 36 years ago and, come to think of it, the two had been swimming at Lake Viking once upon a time so long ago. Mystery solved!

As it turns out, the discovery of the ring was all the more special because of the complicated history following Chuck’s senior year. It was true, Chuck insists, that Beth Ann was always the love of his life, but she was a year younger and after he graduated from high school they drifted apart. He ended up in California, and she ended up marrying another young man. Meanwhile, Chuck married another woman. As fate would have it, both marriages fell apart, each divorced, they found their way back to each other, and married. A daughter named Jaycee was born from their union. Sadly, Beth Ann died of cancer in 2014 when daughter Jaycee was 14.

“Jaycee misses her mother so much,” Chuck relates. “The discovery of this ring is so meaningful to us. Now Jaycee wears the ring on a chain around her neck just as her mother did.”

Wow, what a story. And it was all brought about by an 11-year-old boy, searching for treasure in the sand at Lake Viking.

Pictures: Jaycee holds the ring that her father gave to her mother before it was lost in 1982. Mason Hibler delivers the long lost class ring to Jaycee Wilkinson.