A precious ring belonging to her deceased partner has been returned to Shaz Nicholls.
Last week Nelson Weekly shared the story of the missing ring thought to be lost in a handbag left behind at the Richmond Hopsice shop during a Tuesday visit.
It was thought the ring and handbag it was inside, may have been left on the counter and mistaken for a donation.
However what actually took place was, as Shaz jokes, simply a case of a “silly old lady being forgetful”.
The ring belonged to her “forever love” Ken Mansfield, known to many as Bear, who passed away in 2019.
Shaz says with her usual routine thrown out due to the flooding, she forgot that she had gone out for tea with family to the Anchor Bar and Grill in Nelson on Tuesday evening a fortnight ago.
“I’d taken my phone and keys out and left them on the table,” she says.
Normally she would put them in her bag, but says she didn’t realise she had it.
“When I get up and leave from a restaurant I’m always looking behind for anything I’ve left, but I didn’t see it.”
When her daughter returned to the Anchor Bar and Grill for dinner the following Friday, the server recognised her and told her the woman she had been with left something behind.
Shaz’s daughter arrived home from dinner and told her to close her eyes.
“She said she had a suprise for me, I thought it was cheesecake,” Shaz laughs, “But it was my handbag. I didnt even react because it didnt make sense, I couldn’t understand how she had it.”
“The whole thing was a bit of egg on my face moment, but at least it’s home,” she says.
She says she found the outpouring of love after last week’s article “heartwarming” and thanks everyone for the kind messages and spreading the word to get Ken’s ring home.
“It was lost, just not where I thought I’d lost it.”
She has now taken the ring and the sentimental key that was with it, out of her bag and put it in a special spot.
