Miracle For Heartbroken Bride, Missing Rings Found

HAMPTON BAYS, NY — It's a miracle for a Southampton woman whose missing wedding rings have been found after the community came together to search this week.

"My rings were found! I am seriously still in shock," Michelle McGay told Patch Friday. "I got an email around 4 p.m. today from a lady in Quogue saying that she was so happy she found the rings. I emailed her back asking when and where I could meet her. When I saw my ring could not believe it. I gave huge hugs to both the kind lady and her husband," she said.

"The lady told me she found the ring in the dirt by the Dollar Store and Wild by Nature," in Hampton Bays, McGay said. "She wasn't sure what to do with it right away," she said. "She mentioned to a co-worker that she had found this precious ring and her co-worker couldn't believe it — she had seen a recent Patch article on Facebook and told the lady that I was looking for my rings. They saw a photo of the ring and knew that they had found it."

McGay was moved by the outpouring of kindness from all who searched.

"After getting my ring back, I sat in my car, crying tears of joy. All of the prayers and sharing on Facebook really helped make this miracle come true. I was incredibly lucky that an amazing, kind woman found my rings and wanted to find the rightful owner."

McGay also thanked Patch; the article, she said, was "the reason that people all over the Hamptons knew that my rings were missing. I am forever grateful."

On Thursday, McGay took her rings off while she was getting her nails done at Tickled Pink Nails in Hamptons Bays, tucking them into her sweatshirt pocket.

"I proceeded to run errands at Macy's, Panera, and the Dollar Store before I realized that my rings were no longer in my pocket," she said.

The rings hold deep personal meaning for McGay and her husband, Ovidio Mendez. The couple was married on Nov. 21, 2015 in Southampton.

"Ovidio surprised me one day in December 2014 with an engagement ring. He had never seen the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center so we decided to go into the city right after Christmas," McGay said. "A group of friends went with us as well and we made a trip out of it. Little did I know that he was planning to propose. We visited the tree and it was very crowded and I think he lost the nerve to do it in front of so many people."

Next, her group of friends split up and decided to meet back at St. Patrick's Cathedral, she said. "I had just bought a new hat from a street vendor so when we met back up at the church and everyone was looking at me, I didn't think anything of it. We proceeded inside and were overwhelmed at how beautiful it was. It wasn't until we got to the front of the church that I realized our group of friends had made a semi-circle around us," McGay said.

"My soon-to-be fiancé presented me with a chocolate covered strawberry, with a ring inside. I nearly cried, I was so excited. He asked me in Spanish if I wanted to be his girlfriend or his wife and, of course, I said 'your wife,'" she said.

The memory is one of the happiest of McGay's life.

"It was such an emotional day and I couldn't believe all of our friends had managed to keep it a secret. As far as the strawberry goes, Ovidio said his friend went to find flowers but couldn't find any in the nearby area," she said.

The couple, who live in Southampton, have been happily married for more than a year.

The rings mean everything to McGay. "I never considered myself a picky person until it came to finding a wedding band that matched my engagement ring. I went to every jeweler locally and up the island. I finally decided on a particular band that allowed my engagement ring to fit into it," she said. "It was absolutely beautiful. I cried a good deal knowing that I may never see them again," McGay said.