Everyday Heroes: The story of a ring lost in the water, found a year later

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – We often hear the phrase one in a million to describe something thought barely possible, nearly impossible odds, but this next story might as well be one in a billion. However, this time, the one is the winner.

“So, we had just been having a day out on the boat.”

It was a typical summer day for Megan and Chris Beane in July, cooling off in the water.

The couple was with friends on Wolfe Island along the Stono River, having a great time until this.

“The friends we were with he was asking about a ring because he was getting ready to propose to his now fiancé and silly me, I just took it off my hand to show him, and I actually dropped it before he was able to pick it up,” Megan said.

The moment of horror when Megan dropped her wedding ring in the water experiencing instant panic.

“I kind of stopped right where I was and started searching around,” Megan said.

Megan and Chris, who had been married less than a year when this happened, searched for three days and countless hours but found no ring.

“I figured that all that sediment sand being kicked up was just going to be buried deep in the sand, and it was gone,” Chris said.

The couple said they started to give up hope of finding the lost ring. Chris said they would feel angry every time they passed Wolf Island, and Megan never wanted to return after the incident. They have never been back to the island since.

Although the couple never returned, the Pardee family, specifically Ed and his son Rivers, did.

“We were over here for my father in laws birthday party and Rivers and I went out on a john boat for a shark tooth hunting excursion and we hit out secret spots,” Ed said.

The last stop that day was Wolf Island. “We were walking along and he came up behind and said daddy, I found a ring so I was like let me see that thing,” Ed said.

Nearly a year after that day, Megan dropped the ring in the water with no hope of it being found; 9-year-old Rivers found something much more valuable than a shark tooth.

“It was like just a little shiny thing sticking up,” Rivers said.

Of course, they had no idea what they had found, whether it was real, or who it belonged to.

“We brought it home and got it cleaned up and got it appraised, made sure it was real and everything, and then was on the search for the rightful owner,” Ed said.

Ed’s wife, Carrie, took over from their going onto social media and posting on a special page for lost rings.

“A guy responded to it, to my wife, and said, hey, my buddy had lost a ring on that island approximately a year ago,” Ed explained.

That guy was the one with Megan and Chris the day the ring was lost.

“They got in touch with my wife and started sending pictures back and forth, stuff like that, and it really was it was it,” Ed said.

Chris made the most of the discovery and repropose to Megan with the original ring as Megan did not know the ring had been found.

‘Whenever he showed me the ring, I thought it was maybe like a new ring he had purchased, but then he was like, here’s your ring, and I said no, no way,” Megan said. “… I stood there and looked at it for a second in complete disbelief.”

It is a miracle and a blessing that the story of a long-lost ring in the water for nearly a year is now back on Megan’s finger. It is not lost on anyone that the Pardee family did the right thing and got that ring back on the finger of the rightful owner.

“We are so lucky that they were so generous and didn’t sell it or anything like that,” Megan said.

“Just being a good person and wanted to show my kids to do the right thing and stuff like that,” Ed explained.

“Super thankful for the family that found the ring and was unbelievably generous to return it,” Chris said.

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