On Nova 96.9 Fitzy, Wippa and Kate Ritchie have a regular segment called What are the Chances?, about the coincidence, serendipity and luck that occur for listeners on this crazy life ride. Samantha rang in with the most heartwarming and joyous story, which you can listen to below, about a totally unexpected reunion with a ring 15 years after losing it in the ocean.
Samantha: I have a bit of an amazing story. So when I was about eight or nine, it was Christmas time, and we were holidaying up at Umina Beach Caravan Park…and I was in the surf, and my mum and dad had bought me this beautiful little first diamond ring for Christmas, and I was sort of in the waves up to sort of my knees, and I thought, Oh, I better take my ring off and put it around my necklace, because if I get dumped or under the waves, I might lose it. So I took it off. I was very, very careful, and this like freak wave came knocked me over. The ring falls in the water. and I’m crying…my mum’s crying, we’re all crying, and I lost the ring. So fast forward about 15 or 16, years later, I’m back up there with my daughter and son, and we’re walking along the beach. My daughter’s collecting shells, and she picks up this big shell, and I said, Oh, that’s beautiful. Like, that’s a big one. We don’t find them up this way… and she I said, Oh, hang on. I think there’s like a creature or something in it… So I said ‘Put it down, put down’, and I picked it up and just make sure she wasn’t going to get bitten or anything. And I looked inside, and my ring was inside the shell.
Kate: That’s going to make me cry! You actually win all of the ‘What are the chances’ of all the days and all the years!
Samantha: Yeah, it was crazy, because I remember my mum saying to me, when she gave it to me, I mean, it was like a speck of a diamond It wasn’t anything flash, but she said to me, when you grow up and you have a daughter, you can give this to her. And when we found it, I think I cried for like, a week, it’s a story that just we still don’t believe. Like, I have people say to me, Oh, it can’t be your ring. It’s probably someone else’s. I’m like, it’s the exact same ring!
Kate: It’s meant to be with you!
Samantha: Well, the funny thing is, my mum, actually, at the moment, is palliative. She’s very, very unwell, and out of everything that that she does remember, she still remembers that story. She’ll still say to me, don’t you ever get rid of that ring. And I’m like, my daughter’s got it in a box at home, and she’s not even allowed to wear it.