Michael Hill, from the suburb of Tingalpa, noticed the ring was missing after mowing the lawn of his family home in the 1970s. The gold band, which was engraved with his wedding date, never resurfaced, despite Hill’s searching.
Following Hill and his wife Kaye’s 49th wedding anniversary last month, the couple’s children contacted an amateur metal detectorist, Jual Butler, through Facebook.
Butler spent a total of 11 hours searching the family’s garden and finally found the ring buried 20cm underground in a grassy area.
“I had a good feeling it was there, it was like it was calling to me,” Butler said. “It was really a great feeling.”
Hill called the moment the ring was found “an emotional time,” adding, “The times I walked over that ring [without knowing it] would have been hundreds of times.”
Butler refused Hill’s offer of a reward, saying, “Just to help decent people, that’s all the return I need.”
As the wedding ring no longer fits, Hill now keeps it in a special jewellery box alongside his wife’s ring.
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