Swansea, SC (Paul Kirby) – For Swansea High School graduate Lora Keziah, some things are just too surreal to explain. She recently found this out after having her Swansea High School ring returned to her after it had been missing for 26 years. For her, the only explanation for this is, “It’s a miracle!”
Lora’s incredible story began when she was five months pregnant with her daughter, now 26. She was living in the Olympia area of Columbia when one day, while taking a shower, her high school ring slipped from her finger and quickly went down the drain. Unable to retrieve the ring from the drain, she just knew the ring was lost in the sewer forever. After a while, she completely gave up hope of ever seeing the ring again.
On September 1, 2020 Lora logged onto Facebook to find that a number of people had tagged her regarding a post made by a man who had found a ring. Lora quickly looked at the post and immediately saw that it was her high school ring. There was even a picture of the ring right there in the post with her name clearly engraved on one side!
That post was made by Toni Gunter. Toni’s husband David had located Lora’s ring in a farm field along Edmund Highway in the Pelion area of Lexington County. His father had purchased the field that at one point been used to dump sludge from a wastewater treatment plant among other things. Miraculously, Lora’s ring had ended up here after its journey through the piping system of the house and the City of Columbia's sewers. Somehow, by the grace of God Lora’s ring had been found after all these years.
David did the right thing and tried to locate the rings owner. First, he tried calling the high school to locate that graduate. When he didn't get a phone call back, he tried to email the school. Having no success finding the ring’s owner that way, he finally took a photograph of it and posted it on Facebook.That post was what Lora’s friends had tagged her in.
Lora and Toni arranged to meet each other Tuesday and return the ring to its rightful owner. David was unable to be there because he was still working. According to Toni, David was walking around the farm property recently and located the ring between two buildings.
According to Lora, this wasn't the first time her ring had been lost. She said that while working in her senior year of high school, someone stole her purse with the ring inside. Later, a friend and classmate returned it to her. Apparently, a friend of his family who lived in a mobile home park in West Columbia found the ring in a driveway. This person just so happened to have a close friend whose son was in the same graduating class with Lora at Swansea High School.
Lora says she is so grateful to Toni and David Gunter for their act of kindness by returning her ring. She was so thrilled; she posted her story to Facebook. According to Lora, she had a purpose for that post. “I give all praise to God because he is good all of the time!” Lora wrote. “I pray this post will uplift the spirits of everyone who reads it and perhaps restore a little faith in humanity! I know we are living in troubled times right now,but we must all love one another and show kindness as you never know what someone is going through and how a smile or kind gesture could brighten someone's day!”
