Duncan and Christine Messado.

At an annual Maiden Cay party on December 27, 2007, Duncan Messado lost his wedding band. It, being larger than his finger, he decided to put it on his chain before plunging in the water. In the transfer, his wedding band fell into the water and was swept away by the tide.

They searched in vain, but in the dark it was useless. "Thought it was gone, I was afraid to go home that night because my wife wasn't at the party," recalls Messado. Thinking all was lost, the next day, he got a replacement.

Fast-forward exactly one year and a month later, Henrietta Delisser and her family were enjoying their regular Sunday lyme at Maiden Cay.

More than bottles

On each visit, Delisser picks up any garbage left to litter the beach. She also dives in and retrieves any glass or plastic bottle that may be in the water.

On February 1, she found more than bottles. While diving, she noticed something gold on the sand about five feet from the shore, but not quite buried. Thinking it was a gold cap from a rum bottle, she was about to leave it but then changed her mind and flipped it with her toe. It floated out of the sand and from the size she could tell that it was a man's wedding band. Inside was the inscription 'DMm to CM 01-07-00'. She showed everyone on the beach but no one had lost a wedding band. She thought of all the couples she knew who would match the initial but no one came to mind.

Then a friend of hers told her his cousin's husband had lost his ring there. His name was Duncan Messado and matched the initial in the ring, his wife's name Christine, and that just about solved the mystery. A phone call was immediately made and the wedding date confirmed. The mystery was solved.

"I was overwhelmed I still can't get over it," Messado told Flair. "My wife says it's fate, I can never leave her, ever." She may be right!

Duncan Messado's finger sports the returned ring. - Contributed