SOUTHOLD, NY — Two weeks after a distraught North Fork man lost his wedding ring at the beach, it’s now happily back on his finger. And the story of how it was recovered is a testament to the power of friendship and the miracle of a caring community.
Anthony Catania was swimming at Founders Landing on Aug. 2 when his wedding ring fell off and was lost in the water. He was heartbroken. The ring, a plain silver band, means everything to Catania.
But miracles do happen: Two weeks after the ring when missing in Peconic Bay, another North Fork resident, James Parsons, found the ring after just five minutes of searching for the second time.
Catania took to social media to thank Parsons for “his time, effort and expertise and for being the super nice person he is.” He also thanked his friend Timothy Bialeski for connecting them, and “all my other North Fork friends for sharing my previous post and Michael Martin for offering to search as well. Prayer works!”
Catania was at the beach with family and friends celebrating his older daughter Ava’s 10th birthday when the ring was lost in the water.
“I was in the shallow water playing with my younger daughter Ella. As I rolled from my stomach to a sitting position, I felt my ring slip off my finger and it quickly vanished — slipping below the sand at the bottom, though I had already called everyone to help me search for it. We all looked for about an hour and a half to no avail,” he said.
He was bereft at the thought that he’d never see his ring again —it’s a symbol of the love he shares with his wife Gina; the couple has been married for 16 years.
“The meaning lies not in the monetary value of the ring but the sentimental. If it was totally lost, I knew I could get an exact duplicate but it would not be the ring that she placed on my finger all those years ago,” Catania.
It’s not the first time that the ring has been lost — in fact, it’s the third time it’s slipped off. “The first time was on the night after we were married,” Catania said. “The second was in a massive brush pile behind my house. Each time it’s been found has been more miraculous than the last, this time being just as amazing as the others.”
After he lost the ring in the bay, Catania turned to social media, posting on Facebook about his predicament, with the hope that a local person might stumble upon the ring and know its story.
That post led to the contact with Parsons, who has a metal detector that’s able to search in the water.
“We spoke the day after and he searched on his own without luck. After playing phone tag we met at the beach exactly two weeks since it was lost. While my daughter and I played on the sand he went to have a look and found it in about five minutes,” Catania said. “He asked for nothing in return and said he was happy to be able to return such an important item to its owner.”
Catania was incredulous and deeply touched. “What blew me away was that Jimmy found it so quickly and under about eight inches of sand,” he said. “It was an incredible gift that he gave me by returning it to my finger and it was great to know that there are such generous and helpful people right here in our community. I grew up on Long Island and lived in several places but never felt at home till my wife and I settled here.”
It’s a love for the North Fork that motivated him to start his business, Local Where, and makes items that celebrate the uniqueness of the place. “To have such a close knit community is amazing and we are blessed to be able to raise our children here,” he said.
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The night Catania lost the ring, he was with his friends the Bensons; Keith Benson is the pastor of True Light Church in Cutchogue.
“As we were leaving empty-handed that night, he said that if we had found it then it would have been miraculous — and the way my ring made its way back to me was truly a miracle, that would not have happened without all the people who took the time to help.”
Photos courtesy of Anthony Catania.