Man with metal detector finds wedding ring lost 50 years ago

June 26 (UPI) -- A 94-year-old woman was reunited with her wedding ring after nearly 50 years thanks to a man who overheard her conversation about the gold band.

Florene Bush, 94, a resident at a Leoma nursing home, was talking about her long-lost ring when she was overheard by Wesley White, a metal detector enthusiast who was visiting his mother at the facility.

White spoke to Bush and her son, Frank Bush, and learned the ring had been lost in the 1970s while Bush was gardening near her home.

White and friend Jeff Howell went down to the area where Bush had been gardening and searched for about 90 minutes before they found the ring about five inches below the surface.

"It was approximately five inches deep and there wasn't a scratch on the ring," White told WTVF-TV.

Bush said she was ecstatic to be reunited with her beloved ring.

"I was really thrilled, I didn't think I'd ever see it no more," Florene Bush said. "It's very special, yeah it is."

A Texas woman who lost her great-grandmother's ring recently had a much quicker reunion with the heirloom. Rikki Heel said the ring apparently fell off her finger on a United Airlines flight from Denver to Houston.

The airline got involved in the search and reunited Heel with the ring within hours.