BRUNSWICK, Maine — A Morse High School class ring, lost in Portland in the fall of 1973, just turned up under 8 inches of soil in a Finnish forest. How it got there is a mystery that began 47 years ago on Valentine’s Day.

“There was a lot of weeping when I learned that someone found it and made the effort to reach out and find me,” said Debra McKenna, 63, who lost the ring when she was in high school.





The ring arrived in the mail at her house in Brunswick last week.

It belonged to her boyfriend Shawn, whom she dated all through high school and college. She was 21 when they married in 1977. The couple remained together for 40 years, until Shawn’s death in 2017 after a six-year fight with cancer.

“He first asked me out on Valentine’s Day 1973,” McKenna said. “He left a little note in my coat pocket at school.”

They had their first date three days later, on a Friday night, going to a party at the Phippsburg Grange Hall. She was 16. He was president of the senior class.