A woman who recently visited Sanibel and Captiva is asking for the community’s help to hopefully locate her mother’s wedding band that she lost during the trip.

Karen Horetsky, from Middleton, Pa., lost the plain, solid gold band on Jan. 8 – the last day of her family’s visit before heading back north. She explained that she put the ring on in the morning, then did not realize until later that evening as they flew into Baltimore that the ring had come off her finger.

“At first I was upset, then I was mad. It devastated me,” Horetsky said. “I couldn’t even sleep that night. Since that day, I’ve done a lot of crying.”

The wedding band, along with a diamond ring, was handed down to her after her mother had to be placed in home for those with Alzheimer’s. She said her mother passed away a few years ago.

“Those were the two treasures of her life because my father had given them to her – that’s why is makes it even more sentimental,” Horetsky said. “When I found out I lost it, I kept asking her for forgiveness – I left like I lost a part of her, that’s probably the shortest and best way I can describe it.”

She described the ring as about three-quarters of an inch thick, without any engravings.

“It’s thick solid gold band,” Horetsky said. “It was solid gold. It wasn’t hollow.”

“It was heavy. It was like 10 grams of gold,” she added.

Horetsky and her family had been staying at the ‘Tween Waters Inn Island Resort on Captiva. She recalled that on their last day, they walked around the grounds some, as well as visited The Green Flash Waterfront Restaurant and The Island Store on Captiva, just down the road from The Mucky Duck.

“We didn’t go to the beach that day,” she said.

On the way out of town, the family made a stop at the Speedway on Sanibel.

“My cousin was getting gas and I went to the bathroom,” she said.

“Basically, those were the places that we were at,” Horetsky said, adding that she has notified the locations and continues to follow up with them. “I’m calling all these places thinking maybe somebody found it in the parking lot.”

In the hopes of tracking the ring down, she posted about the loss on Facebook.

“I almost gave up hope until I saw all the posts and PMs (private messages),” Horetsky said.

She explained that strangers are sharing her post and island people have reached out.

“I had a guy volunteer his metal detector services for free to help me,” Horetsky said “I had a lady that lives down there and said she knows every inch of that island volunteer to check out all the places.”

She called the response overwhelming – in a good way.

“You don’t see a lot of that in the world anymore,” Horetsky said. “I’m beyond words. It has overwhelmed me – I was never expecting this kind of response, never ever.”

The TSA and the airports have been notified of the missing ring.

Anyone with information about the wedding band can contact Horetsky at 717-364-5458 or through Facebook by searching for “Karen Rutherford Horetsky.”