A loose clasp on an heirloom ring caused a panic for LouAnn Ryan, but her prayers were answered Friday when a volunteer at her church told her it had been found.

The St. Paul resident said the ring came off while she was volunteering Wednesday at Fare for All, a nonprofit group run out of Hazel Park Congregational United Church of Christ. She was sure it had been sealed up in a box of vegetables, sold to a customer and lost forever.

A Facebook post and a Pioneer Press article had turned up nothing.

“I was sobbing this morning,” Ryan said. “I just broke down. People were telling me to keep the faith.”

She clung to her faith, she said, and prayed for its safe return. Shortly thereafter, the phone rang. Someone at the church had found the ring on the floor. It had never left the building.

She was overjoyed.

“I thought I was never going to see that ring again!” she said.

The decorative silver ring with a single diamond dates back to the early 1900s. It had been her grandfather’s cousin’s wedding ring.

“I had planned on leaving the ring to my children,” she said.