Karen Autenrieth misplaced her wedding ring in 1973 after a visit to her grandparents’ house in Chicago. She resigned herself to the fact that she would never see it again.
She was loading her children into her car when the ring slipped off her finger. Autenrieth told The San Antonio Report, "It was very snowy, very cold, and I was helping them get into the car, … and it flew off my hand and landed in the snow. She dug in the snow, but could not find the ring. “I came back a few weeks later when the snow had melted, looked again, no luck,” she said. “Tried a couple other times too, no luck.”
Now, almost 50 years later, the ring is finally being returned. Sarah Batka lives in the Chicago house once occupied by Autenrieth's grandparents. She found a random ring while digging in her garden, with the initials “R.A. to K.B.” and a date, “4-16-66," inscribed on the inside.
She took to social media to find the owner, and through a community Facebook page, found a historical society who researched the original occupants of the house. They found the granddaughter of one of those occupants was named "Karen Berk Autenrieth."
Historian Carol Flynn used social media to track down Karen, and inquire if she ever lost a wedding ring. As you can imagine, Karen's response was "teary."
Now, the ring is making its way to San Antonio, and should arrive just in time for Valentine's Day. Karen's husband Bob commented, "A ring is a commitment – it’s a circle. A circle is forever."