Michelle Favaro hoped the dazzling ring that was a melding of wedding, engagement and 10-year anniversary bands, would be the most precious gift she could pass on to her sons when she dies.
It features one large diamond surrounded by 15 smaller ones, and eight more small ones down one side.
On July 18, Favaro, her sister and a friend had just checked out of the Coast Hotel in Langley, where they had met to celebrate a birthday, when Favaro decided to use the washroom before driving home to Burnaby.
She took off her rings to wash her hands and, noticing there was no paper in the dispenser by the basin she used, walked across the room to another. She dried her hands and, without a backward glance, left the washroom — and her rings on the counter.
“Have we got everything?” her friend asked as the trio chatted in the parking lot, going through a list of items they might have missed.
When she got to ‘jewelry’ Favaro realized that she had forgotten to slip her rings back on her finger.
She rushed back to the washroom, but they had gone.
In normal circumstances, Favaro might be less desperate for their return.
But this is no normal time for Favaro, who two years ago was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer which is now advancing quickly.
“There is no protocol for this type of cancer and I have been told it’s incurable,” Favaro said.
“I have been battling for the past two years and my disease is progressing steadily. If the odds I have been given play out, I want to be able to pass this ring down to my children as it really is all that I have to give that symbolizes my life, my friendship and my love with their father.”
With her 20th wedding anniversary approaching, “it really hurts” that she will not have her husband’s precious gifts on her finger on the Aug. 10 celebration.
She is willing to buy back the rings.
“Even if they’ve been sold I will buy them back,” Favaro said. “I am on disability but I’ll do what I can.”
She asks that anyone who can help her retrieve the ring call her at 604-519-0206.
