A dispute over a set of missing engagement and wedding rings came to a swift but unsatisfying end this week when an insurance adjuster for Providence Portland Medical Center agreed to pay a widower $10,000 for the disappearance of his late wife’s rings.

John Granlund said he’d still like to know how the rings vanished from his 82-year-old wife’s hand within hours of her April 27 death from heart failure at the Northeast Portland hospital, but acknowledged that he probably will never find out.

Granlund had one of the rings made using a diamond he won by chance at a fair. His wife had worn it throughout their 64 years of marriage.

Family members said they’ve heard multiple explanations from hospital officials of what might have happened: The rings might have accidentally fallen behind a cabinet, been misplaced with another patient’s belongings or been stolen by someone who momentarily stepped into the room after the ring had been removed and a nurse was looking the other way.

Granlund and his family pressed the hospital for answers, but felt stonewalled. “It got to the point they wouldn’t even return my calls,” he said.

He hired an attorney, who filed a lawsuit last week. The Oregonian/OregonLive contacted Providence on Tuesday seeking comment. Five hours later, the case settled.

The hospital’s insurance company agreed to pay Granlund the full $10,000 the lawsuit sought, said Portland attorney Michael Fuller.

Fuller said the rings weren’t of great monetary value, but they held great sentimental significance. The original purpose of the lawsuit, he said, had been to force Providence to provide answers by requiring its employees to answer questions from him in depositions.

Providence representatives told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Wednesday that the hospital’s investigation into what happened to the rings will go on.

“First, we are so sorry for the Granlund family’s loss, and we apologize for the additional burden we have placed on them,” Krista Farnham, chief executive of the medical center, said in a statement.

“We do have processes and procedures in place to ensure the safe return of valuables to patients and their families,” Farnham continued. “We deeply regret any instance when we fall short. In addition to the review of our actions, we are looking at our processes to see if changes need to be made to strengthen those.”

Providence spokesman Gary Walker added: “We will get back to the family and let them know what we find.”

Granlund -- who lives in Ocean Park, Washington, about 2 ½ hours away from the medical center -- said he remembers the lucky day he won a diamond in a drawing at a fair in Minnesota. It was in the 1950s, and he and Cherril were on a date. He must have been about 18, and she was probably 17.

“It was just one of those deals where they picked a number and I won,” Granlund said. “We’d been going together maybe a year.”

Granlund said he bought the gold to have the rings made. He proposed, and the two were married the following year.

Granlund stressed two points about the mystery of the lost rings.

The reason he believes they are gone? “It was the carelessness of someone there,” Granlund said.

And what does he think of the settlement? “I’d rather have the rings,” he said.

Granlund’s 25-year-old granddaughter, Kaylie Granlund, said the rings were with her grandparents as they adopted and raised five children and as they moved from Minnesota to Montana, Arizona, Oregon and then Washington. In her grandmother’s final years, she battled Alzheimer’s, Kaylie Granlund said.

“Through sickness and health,” she said. “My grandfather has beat cancer seven times. She was by his side 100 percent. And when she got sick, he was by her side 100 percent.”

She said she and her sister, who live in the Tigard area, had tried to help their grandfather by calling the hospital for answers because they knew of the rings’ importance.

Kaylie Granlund said her grandfather is devastated over her grandmother’s death and “this loss of symbolism of 64 years” has only added to his pain.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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