An empty spot in a parking lot on Cliff Avenue in Courtenay used to be the location of a popular coffee shop, Courtenay Grind, and it’s where Monique Molnar Wilford stopped for a cup of java two and a half years ago, never imagining what she’d leave behind.
“I was a bit foggy, to say the least,” she said.
Molnar Wilford had just had a procedure done at the hospital and had put her rings including her wedding band in her wallet.
“As I opened my wallet to pay my wedding ring just went bounce, bounce and I just kind of stood there and watched it drop down into the hole,” added Molnar Wilford.
It remained there under the building for two and a half years until it sold recently and had to be moved.
Cumberland Councillor Sean Sullivan was contacted because of his experience moving buildings and had been told to keep an eye out for a ring that had been lost there a few years prior.
“We split the building in two and put the pieces on the truck and we just kind of looked around and it took five minutes and there it was,” said Sullivan.
He found the ring within five minutes and posted it online to a Lost and Found group on Facebook.
“I posted it and there were a lot of hits on it and everybody was saying I hope you find her, I hope you find her and 15 minutes later she found me,” said Sullivan.
“After dinner watching hockey, my husband Glen was looking at Facebook and sees the post from Sean and says to me, Monique you better message him,” said Molnar Wilford.
And soon after that, the ring was back on the finger of its rightful owner, two and a half years after almost being forgotten.
“It really wasn’t worth moving the building for at the time,” said Molnar Wilford. “But yes it has a lot of sentimental value and I’m really grateful to Sean to have it back, it’s fantastic,” she added.
“It’s definitely the feel-good story people need right now,” said Sullivan. “I mean good things still happen and if you put your energy into it you can find it.”