Lost and found: Decades later, Norton woman gets long-lost ring

By Jean Porrazzo, Enterprise staff writer
EASTON — Twenty years ago, Helen Miller was gardening in the backyard of her home when her engagement ring slipped off her finger.
"I shoved my hand into a huge pile of leaves," said Miller, now 67. "I pulled out my hand and my ring was gone."
Now, her lost engagement ring has come full circle — back to where it belongs, resting on top of her wedding band.
The antique Cape, at 76 Short St., has been sold twice since Miller lived there. The latest owners found Miller's ring — also while gardening.
The owners, Julie Taylor, 32, and her fiance, George Lea, 40, were out in the yard replanting spring flowers and cutting branches when Lea cut into part of a barbed-wire fence.
"He dropped the chain saw and there right on top where I had dug up daffodils was the ring," Julie Taylor said. "I think God had something to do with the barbed wire."
Taylor and Dennis Ruggiero, whom Taylor works for, returned the ring.
"The look on her face told me the whole world was right now," Taylor said.
Back when Miller lost the ring, two decades ago, she and her husband, Bill, searched for days and then renewed their search each spring when they gardened.
"All we got was poison ivy," she said. "Every time I did yard work, I looked for it. I was sure it was part of a bird's nest."
The couple talked about replacing the ring but Miller's husband died in 1997, and Helen Miller moved to Norton.
"We never got to it," she said.
Miller sold the house to Ruggiero three years ago and mentioned the lost ring.
"He got his metal detector and was sure he could find it," she said. "He dug a lot of holes, but no luck."
Ruggiero rented the house to Taylor and Lea, who ended up buying it. He passed along the story of the ring.
After Taylor and Lea found the ring two weeks ago, Taylor and Ruggiero paid a visit to Miller at her job at Shaw's supermarket in Easton.
"I was bagging someone's order when they both came in," Miller said. "I thought it was a visit."
Taylor introduced herself to Miller and told her she had found something at her former house.
"I didn't think of the ring," Miller said. "I don't know why."
Then Taylor opened her left hand and she had Miller's engagement ring on her finger, with her own engagement ring on top of it to keep it in place.
"I was dumbfounded," Miller said. "I was thinking, 'What can I do for you. How can I thank you?'"
Miller went to her former home and Taylor showed her where she found the ring. "It's just where I lost it," Miller said.
Miller plans to pass the ring on to her daughter along with the story of its recovery.
"I'm going to write it down," Miller said. "My daughter is thrilled."
When she lost the ring 20 years ago, Miller had lost weight and the ring was too big, but she didn't get it resized. "It fits perfect now," Miller said.
When Miller glances down at her ring, she thinks of her husband, and Taylor and Lea who returned the ring to her.
"I've always thought that there are more nice people than bad," Miller said.