Rings From A Near 6 Decade-Long Marriage Lost ...Then Found

EAST LYME, CT — The best doughnuts. And the best story. Grab the Kleenex. We’ll wait.

Late Friday afternoon, on the Flanders Donut and Bake Shop Facebook page, a message for fans and friends: Ingrid Terracciano, the matriarch of the family business, lost her wedding, engagement and anniversary rings in East Lyme. More than just bands of metal and gems, the rings were ones Terracciano’s husband, Andrew "Andy" J. Terracciano, gave her.

The couple were married for nearly 59 years when Andrew passed away in 2015. As his obituary explained then, “Andy was a fourth generation baker. He owned and operated Flanders Donut & Bake Shop alongside his wife Ingrid and four children for 30 years ...”

Her rings a representation of those near six decades together. And so, the family took to their bake shop's popular Facebook page where, in less than a day, tens of thousands had seen the post, thousands shared it and, though some small miracle, those rings are back on Ingrid's fingers because of good people sharing information.

It’s a lovely story.

“Today our mom lost her engagement/wedding/anniversary rings while she was in East Lyme. The rings are of sentimental value because of our dad. She had them on when she left the bakery today. She went to Tri-Town, Citizens Bank and Citgo between 11 and 11:45 this morning. If anyone could please share so maybe by a glimmer of hope someone finds them and they get returned to her.”

If anyone could share? How about 3,300 people?

Lost, then found

Sue Ellen Perry said she was “coming out of CVS nobody parked behind me. I did not see the ring going in CVS. It was right behind my car and I said OMG that’s the ring that was on Facebook.”

And back into the pharmacy where she spoke with Maegan Korzeniewski, a CVS employee, who later wrote on Facebook: “I couldn’t believe it when one of our good customers brought it in to us we couldn’t wait to call …”

And the Terracciano family were thrilled when they got that call.

“It’s unbelievable our moms ring was found at the tri town parking lot and returned to CVS by a wonderful woman. Thank you so much to this wonderful person and to all of you for sharing this post to help us get her ring back!”

And they could not wait to surprise their mom with the rings and recorded it and shared it on Facebook. Perry said seeing her relief and joy was her reward: “I have not felt this great in a long time! So happy!”

The Terracciano family, aka Flanders Donut and Bake Shop, wrote back to Perry. The entire exchange is on Facebook.

“We are so grateful that you found our mom's ring as you see in the video how happy she was when it was returned to her. You have no idea how much this means to us that such a wonderful person would return it. We honestly thought that she would never see it again. You are a godsend thank you so much for being such an honest good person! As you can see from the overwhelming amount of shares this post had that there are thousands of people who think the world of you also! We will be messaging you in your inbox! Thank you so much!”

Last week Patch first wrote about the veteran who, on Veterans Day lost $4,200. It was found and returned, by a veteran ...because, mostly, people are awesome.