Trash crew gets ringing endorsement
Staff writer
When Neal Whitaker dropped off his old couch at the Marion County Trash Transfer Station on Thursday, he didn’t think much of it. He’d checked under the cushions beforehand to make sure nothing of import was stuck in there.
Unbeknownst to him, deep in the couch was something very important: wife Cathy’s high school class ring from 1978.
The ring fell out of the couch while station director Josh Housman was moving the couch.
Whitaker already had left, so Housman took to the internet to try to determine the ring’s owner. He noticed the words “Axtell High” on it, as well as the initials “CLB.”
“Her maiden name was Bishop,” Whitaker explained.
Axtell is a small community in north Kansas.
“It’s almost in Nebraska,” Whitaker said.
Housman found Axtell’s alumni association on social media, and posted a photo of the ring.
“There were probably less than a dozen people in Cathy’s graduating class,” Whitaker said. “So it didn’t take them long to figure out whose class ring it was.”
Cathy’s sister and brother, who live in Axtell and are part of the social media group, got in contact with Housman and directed him to Whitaker.
Housman delivered the ring to Whitaker on Tuesday.
Cathy suffers from frontotemporal dementia and finds it difficult to speak and understand words.
“She doesn’t understand that she had a ring, or lost a ring, or anything like that,” Whitaker said.
But recovering his wife’s ring means the world to Whitaker and his family.
“It’s meaningful to me and especially to our three daughters,” he said.
Transfer station workers try to return lost valuables when they can, but it can be hard considering the amount of discarded goods they receive, Housman said.
He’s grateful he was able to return the ring to its rightful owner.
“A lot of time, things come in, we don’t have time to really look,” he said. “I’m glad I [could] help them out, get something of value back to them.”