‘I Lost A Part Of Me’: Colorado Dive Team Recovers Wedding Ring

BRECKENRIDGE, CO — Many of the Summit County Water Rescue Team’s missions end in heartbreak with the recovery of bodies from the cold waters 10,000 feet above sea level around Breckenridge. But last month, the volunteer divers with the search, rescue and recovery team fished something precious from the waters Frisco Bay Marina, located off the Dillon Reservoir in the heart of Summit County.

Valdis “Zeke” Zebauers’ wedding band — a one-of-a-kind ring casted from wax models he and his wife had designed — slipped off his finger as he was tying his boat to the slip at the marina after a day of sailing with friends on Aug. 17.

His heart sank with the ring. It hadn’t left his finger since his wife, Yvonne, placed it there 46 years ago.

“It was just a horrible feeling to see that thing go in the water,” Zebauers told the Summit Daily newspaper. “I thought that it was gone forever. … I felt like I lost a part of me.”

The Summit County dive team recovered the ring 10 days later. It was a “one in a million” find, Sgt. Mark Watson with the Summit County Sheriff's Office special operations unit told the Summit Daily.

For a team whose dives most often involve life and death or the recovery of evidence for criminal investigations, this was one that brought immense joy to everyone involved. Non-emergency dives like this one provide invaluable training and equipment tests for the volunteer team attached to the sheriff’s office. Diving into the high-altitude icy waters is perilous, even in 16 feet of water.

The dive team “can go in and rescue people and save lives in water environments,” Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons told the newspaper, “but can also rescue the community in other ways.”

“This was an emotional rescue. And to me, a win is a win,” he continued. “If we can bring some happiness and closure to someone in the community like this, then that’s awesome.”

The ring is back on Zeke’s finger, where Yvonne has placed it decades before.

“She was horrified when I told her about it,” he told the newspaper. “She was totally distraught like I was. The alternate plan was to re-create the ring somehow, or find something that looked sort of like the ring she was wearing. So she was, of course, thrilled like I was when it was found. … I initially had no hope of seeing it again. But the dive team did a remarkable job.”

» Read the full story on the Summit Daily.