A yr in the past, her engagement ring vanished at a hospital. She nonetheless cherishes the person who gave it to her

Faye Bauman was carrying her diamond ring when she fell and broke her hip. It was June of final yr, and she or he was 85. At North Florida Hospital in Gainesville, she took off a number of items of jewellery, together with the ring, and gave them to a nurse.

After the surgical procedure, recovering at a rehab heart, she realized she’d left the hospital with out her jewellery — together with the diamond engagement ring from the love of her life.

She might nonetheless keep in mind the look in his eyes when he gave her that ring. Keen and harmless. They’d met at a celebration, and by the tip they had been holding palms beneath the desk. He saved as much as purchase her the ring. A half-carat diamond in white gold. At some point he confirmed up at her workplace and dropped to at least one knee. He regarded gorgeous in his Navy gown uniform. She stated sure, slipping the ring onto her finger, sliding it round to make the diamond catch the sunshine.

Fifty-six years later, in a more moderen band of yellow gold, that diamond vanished from the hospital. Faye Bauman needed to know why.

For nearly 12 months, she and her daughter tried to seek out solutions. They spoke with a minimum of 4 hospital officers. Bauman filed a police report, which categorized the lacking jewellery as a grand theft. However they obtained no satisfaction. The jewellery gave the impression to be gone endlessly. By Might 2024, they are saying, nobody had provided to make the state of affairs proper.

Lastly, Bauman informed information reporters about her plight. In an extended message despatched from her iPad, throughout which she apologized for any errors that is perhaps brought on by her macular degeneration, she wrote, “Nowadays, the CEO will not be returning my;our calls. I’ve completed the whole lot they’ve informed me to do however at this level it appears I don’t exist.”

A CNN reporter made inquiries with the hospital and the police division and waited a number of days for solutions. Within the meantime, over the course of a number of cellphone interviews, Bauman informed her story.

She stated she didn’t count on to see her diamond ring once more. However she realized this was an opportunity to speak about one thing extra essential: the person who gave her the ring.

“I wish to let you know, I used to be not a princess after I met him,” she stated. “Tom made me a princess.”

She has fantastic recollections of their marriage. However the ultimate years weren’t the identical

Earlier than he and Faye had been married, Tom took care of his sick mom. This expertise strengthened his behavior of serving others. Day after day, all through a lot of their marriage, he introduced Faye breakfast in mattress. He’d choose a flower from the yard and place it in a tiny Waterford vase that he set on her breakfast tray. He requested her how she needed her banana sliced. He introduced her English tea, together with toast and jam and a coddled egg. Faye was divorced with three younger daughters when she met Tom, and Tom handled the ladies like they had been his personal.

Tom and Faye had been married for 48 years. She was a mental-health counselor and he labored within the Navy Provide Corps. After the Navy he obtained his contractor’s license. “Each home we ever lived in, he transformed,” she stated. He did plumbing and electrical work, including a household room, putting in French doorways, taking over further work so he might purchase and set up a brand new Jacuzzi for the girl he liked.

They saved up their lengthy romance from Florida to Rhode Island, from London to Istanbul and again to Florida. She admired his attractiveness and appreciated the best way he smelled. They danced on the seaside with their eyes closed.

Tom took care of Faye till he couldn’t anymore. In his fifties, one thing went unsuitable together with his thoughts. First it was dementia, then Parkinson’s Illness. He painted a room the unsuitable coloration. He walked outdoors in his underwear. Within the grocery retailer, he picked up a bit of gum from the ground and put it in his mouth.

Tom’s physique started to fail him, beginning together with his toes. Now it was Faye’s flip to maintain Tom. She pulled him out of the recent tub when he couldn’t get out on his personal. She positioned him on a mat within the yard, the place he might lie down and pull weeds. She obtained up early to scrub the gutters so he couldn’t inform her that was his job.

It went on like that for greater than 20 years. He was her husband, however the man she’d married was solely a reminiscence. He requested to maneuver to a nursing house, and she or he let him go. Typically she woke in the course of the evening and drove to the nursing house and obtained into mattress with him.

“I don’t wish to die,” he informed her.

‘Oh, he was so lovely’

As Faye Bauman reminisced about her husband, the gears had been turning within the case of the lacking ring. The state of affairs appeared to alter within the days after a CNN reporter inquired in regards to the jewellery. A Gainesville Police spokesman stated the case had been assigned to a detective.

And a spokesperson from HCA Healthcare’s North Florida division launched this assertion:

“Compassionate care is the best goal for the workers at HCA Florida North Florida Hospital. We regarded into this with our contracted safety supplier who’s accountable for securing affected person’s belongings, and we have now assisted the Gainesville Police Division with their investigation, which is ongoing. We remorse the lack of this private merchandise and have dedicated to reimbursing this particular person to make issues proper.”

This was an enchancment, if not a full decision. Faye Bauman nonetheless desires to know the way the ring disappeared, and she or he nonetheless desires extra solutions about what hospital officers did within the yr that adopted.

As for the person who put the ring on her finger, she is certain of his ultimate vacation spot.

Close to the tip he was on morphine, and he’d stopped speaking, and so they had been collectively, and he was drifting away.

“Oh,” she stated, remembering that second, “he was so lovely.”

She held his hand, and kissed him, and prayed the Lord’s Prayer. It felt as if angels had been filling the room. She was praising God as she heard Tom take his final breath.

Nothing is endlessly, a minimum of not right here on earth. She wore that diamond ring for seven extra years. After which, like Tom, it was gone.

“You recognize,” Faye stated, “we had an exquisite life.”

Her voice was cracking as she considered him. Imagining the previous Tom, the one who knelt earlier than her that day in 1967. She anticipated to see him once more. Restored, and renewed. His arms open. Welcoming her house.

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