Central Laundry heroically finds a lost wedding ring from Provo

Last week, I was working my usual hospital shift. It started to get hot that day and my wedding ring felt a little tight, so I decided to take it off and put it in the pocket of my hospital scrubs. Bad idea. A day or two later, I realized my mistake when I noticed my ring was missing. My heart sank. I’ve had that ring on my hand for almost 16 years and I almost never take it off. I frantically called the hospital. I called my Labor and Delivery unit, Security, the hospital laundry, everywhere. I learned the hospital ships all of their laundry off to Central Laundry in Woods Cross to be processed. I was pretty sure I would never see it again. I know it’s just a “thing,” but it was heartbreaking to me. You just can’t replace a lost wedding ring once it’s gone — and all the memories, happy times, hardships, and emotions tied into a little piece of jewelry. 

Then I got a phone call from the office manager of the Central Laundry. They had found it!! Talk about a needle in a haystack. Central Laundry processes all the laundry for the northern Intermountain facilities, and I was told they do more laundry in one day than a typical family does in one lifetime. The washing machines are the size of Semi trucks. My tiny ring passed through so many different hands to get to this point, made it through an entire wash cycle, and a wonderful caregiver named Guy Bambabate found the ring while sorting the clean scrubs and gave it to his supervisor, Terri Dix. The Central Laundry office manager, Julie Robinson, connected with me to give me the ring back.

I’m so thankful for good honest people who returned my ring. I still can’t believe what a miraculous story this is, and for how many hands my ring had passed through to get to that point. I’m so grateful for our Central Laundry staff for finding and returning something that was so important to me. I can’t stop smiling!