Nearly three years after it sank to the bottom of Michigan’s Dowagiac River during a rafting trip, a treasured keepsake has found its way back into the hands of the Indiana man who lost it.
Josh King had a medallion made to honour his infant son, who passed away from SIDS in 2004.
He wore it that day on the river, but it became tangled up in the reeds and was lost in the water, he told NBC.
“I never thought I would ever see it again,” he said.
Years later, a fisherman on the river found the keepsake and tucked it into a drawer, certain he’d never find its owner.
But earlier this month, Dustan Harley posted an image of the medallion to a community Facebook page.
The post was shared about 4,000 times.
Now, with the medallion back where it belongs, King still can’t believe his prized possession has come back to him.
“For this guy to find it 2.5 years later at the bottom of the river,” he told NBC, “it just doesn’t happen.”
King told NBC he had found a gold ring to replace the keepsake. He planned to hand the ring down to his surviving son, who was born on the same day as the son who passed away.
But in a strange twist of fate, King said he lost the gold ring on the same day Harley posted the picture of the lost keepsake to Facebook.