After losing her wedding ring, Wanda Nations thought it was gone forever.

The ring of 62 and a half years went missing while she and husband Pete ate dinner the night of Feb. 9 at Western Sizzlin’ in Dalton. Midway through their meal, she realized her ring was no longer on her finger.

She retraced her steps.

It wasn’t inside the restaurant. Then she remembered brushing her hand against her navy pants in the parking lot. Since Wanda had lost weight recently and Thursday was a cool night, her ring didn’t fit as tightly. The Nations went outside with a restaurant employee with a flashlight to look for it around the handicapped spot they had parked. Again, no luck.

She and Pete looked all over their house several times. No one returned it to the restaurant.

“We had given up hope,” Wanda said.

So the next day she made a last-ditch call to The Daily Citizen’s opinion line, Today’s Forum, which is printed in the newspaper daily on page 4. The Forum contains a cornucopia of comments ranging from pro-Trump remarks to commentary on the Atlanta Falcons’ Super Bowl collapse to complaints about a large pothole in the south end of the county.

“I lost my wedding ring, possibly inside or outside of the Western Sizzlin’ steakhouse on Legion Drive next to Lowe’s,” she said in the voicemail. “It has a wide band with a cluster of small diamonds on the top. It has great sentimental value. The band is 37-plus-years-old and the cluster is 62-plus-years-old. If found, please, please turn it into Western Sizzlin’ and leave where you can be reached and you will be given a reward.”

Not every call, email or handwritten note sent to The Forum makes the cut. I’m the main screener — or gatekeeper if you prefer — of the Forum. Of the 50 or so comments we receive daily, we print about 12. While we receive a handful of comments about lost items, not all end up in the Forum. However, the caller’s pained voice and the ring’s sentimental story pushed the comment into Tuesday’s Forum.

Wanda reads the Forum every day. With the call she hoped someone would remember seeing the ring or possibly may have picked it up.

Someone did.

After finishing their meal at Western Sizzlin’ on the same evening Wanda lost her ring, Rodney McConkey and his son Chris stopped in the parking lot. The two were conversing, and Rodney happened to look down and “saw a sparkle.” He picked up the ring — Wanda’s ring — and put it in his pocket.

At lunch the following Wednesday, the day after Wanda’s Forum comment ran, Rodney told Chris he had a job for his son. Rodney reached into his pocket and produced a wedding ring.

Rodney read the comment about the lost ring in Tuesday’s Forum. Chris is the IT director at The Daily Citizen (small world, huh?), so Rodney asked his son to track down the caller’s number. Chris did, and arranged for them to meet at the newspaper office this past Thursday.

Wanda and Pete were hugely relieved to have the ring back. They were extremely appreciative of Rodney’s good deed. They shook hands and traded stories about serving in the military. While the Nations and McConkeys visited, Wanda repeatedly touched the ring with two of her fingers on her right hand, perhaps still feeling a bit of nervousness and anxiety over losing it.

Some people decry the negativity that often pervades the Forum while complaining we don’t report enough good news. This story reminds us of the Forum’s reach along with the power of the newspaper.

The ring doesn’t have great monetary value, Wanda said. At 62 and a half years old — the Nations mark their 63rd wedding anniversary in September — it does have great sentimental value. She plans to pass the ring to her children or grandchildren.

“We wouldn’t have found it without the help of the newspaper,” Pete said.

Without everyone working together to find the ring’s owner, we never would have had a story with such a sweet ending.

Jamie Jones is the managing editor of The Daily Citizen.