Maine woman's long-lost class ring found an ocean away

No one can explain how a class ring lost in Maine 47 years ago was just found in Finland, but it now means even more to owner Debra McKenna.

The ring originally belonged to McKenna's high school sweetheart, Shawn. They met at Morse High School, and on Valentine's Day 1973, he asked McKenna out on a date. They soon became a couple, and when he went away to college in the fall, he gave her his class ring. Not long after, McKenna lost it while shopping at a department store. She forgot about the ring, but never forgot about Shawn — the pair wed in 1977, and remained married until 2017, when Shawn died of cancer.

Last month, thousands of miles away from McKenna's home, a man named Marko Saarinen was using his metal detector in Kaarina, Finland. While in a park, his detector started making noise, and under about eight inches of dirt, he found a ring with a blue stone. It belonged to someone who attended Morse High School, and was inscribed with "1973" and "S.M." He notified the school's alumni association, and they soon determined that Shawn McKenna was the only person in the Class of 1973 with the initials "S.M."

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When his widow learned that the long-lost ring had been found, "there was a lot of weeping," she told the Bangor Daily News. She doesn't have the slightest idea how the ring got from Maine to Finland, but did find it remarkable that on the side of the ring, it says "Shipbuilders," which is the mascot of Morse High School — it's also Saarinen's profession. "Shawn used to say there's no such thing as coincidences," McKenna said. Catherine Garcia