Over the years this has led to a few moments of questionable judgment—like the time I carried a full-size recliner up a flight of stairs by myself. I still don’t know how I managed that one. Then there was the incident with the rug that refused to go upstairs. I eventually rolled it up, duct-taped it to my body, and crawled up the steps with it attached to me. I wish I were exaggerating.
Last September, I decided the tiny table-for-two in the conservatory had to go. I wanted something bigger, farmhouse-style, so I could spread out my coffee, my jewelry-making supplies, my art journals, my half-finished letters—basically turn the space into my winter headquarters. I hauled the wicker chairs and that ridiculously heavy mosaic-topped outdoor table out to the deck to make room feeling very pleased with myself. In came the farmhouse table.
I hated the new table almost immediately.
Yesterday, in what can only be described as an effort to completely do myself in, I decided to dismantle the farmhouse table. I removed the legs and stored them in the entry hall closet. The tabletop—an enormous slab of wood—had to go to the garage.
If you’ve never tried to move a gigantic wooden tabletop alone, I don’t recommend it. Lifting it was out of the question. I finally put a quilt underneath it and pushed the whole contraption across the house like some deranged sled dog—through the living room, through the laundry room (far trickier than it sounds), and down two steps, where I smashed one of my toes in the process. I’m currently waiting for the toenail to turn the color of a thundercloud. But I did it. The tabletop arrived in the garage and landed precisely where I wanted it. Huzzah.
This morning, sore in places I didn’t know existed, I decided to bring the mosaic table and the wicker chairs back inside. It was a glorious, unseasonable eighty-degree day, so I wiped everything down and began the process.
I felt a ridiculous surge of accomplishment. Like I’d won a small war against gravity. I simply cannot describe the satisfaction of that moment.
Then I went back for the last chair. I lifted it, and something small and gold caught the light underneath.
I froze.
My heart did that thing where it drops and races at the same time.
My dad’s wedding ring.
The one I’ve worn every day since February 2019, when he left us. The one that vanished on September 2, 2025.
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That date is burned into me. Haircut in the morning, gas station afterward,
normal day… until I stretched out on the bed that night, Stanley by my side, to
watch an evening of baseball. I just happened to glance at my hand, and the
ring was gone. I was in disbelief! At that moment I felt as if I had been
robbed…somehow…without the physical contact. My brain was on overload trying to
make sense of everything.Number two son, Andrew, was convinced it had to be somewhere in the house. Statistically speaking, he said, I hadn’t gone many places that day. So I began searching. I moved furniture, changed bedding, looked under everything I owned. I called the salon. I called the gas station. I asked them to keep an eye out, though I had little hope anyone would turn in a vintage gold wedding band.
I grieved it like another death. It felt like losing my dad all over again—another piece of him gone, another tether snapped.
And yet here it was. Six months outside. Six months of blizzards, freezing rain, winter sun, and wind that could peel paint. The ring looked almost new. Shiny. Untouched. Like it had been waiting.
My hands were shaking when I picked it up.
I sat down on the deck floor and cried. Relief and disbelief and something softer I can’t quite name. Gratitude, maybe. Or grace. Or just the sheer absurdity that after all my moving and shoving and rearranging, the thing I’d lost came back because I moved one last chair.
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I slipped it back on my finger where it belongs. It fits the same, feels the same, carries the same quiet weight. I’m still wearing my wedding rings, my mother’s, the one I gave Jim, and now Dad’s again. All of them together make a little constellation on my hand—a reminder that love doesn’t have an expiration date, even when the people do.
Those small circles of gold make me feel close to them.
When Dad’s ring disappeared, it felt as if I had lost something far larger than a piece of jewelry. I fell into a sadness that never quite lifted.
And there it was.
Under the wicker chair.
The negative voice in my head whispered that maybe I found it now because my time’s running out, that Andrew should have it next, that the universe is tying up loose ends. I told that voice to hush. Today I’m choosing the other story: that sometimes things come back. Sometimes you get a second chance to hold what mattered most. Sometimes the deck, after all those months of enduring everything I made it endure, decided to be kind.
I don’t know what tomorrow’s rearrangement will be. Probably nothing—I can barely walk from yesterday’s heroics. But if I do move something else, I’ll do it with a little more hope. Because you never know what might be waiting underneath.
This story is part of my series Life on Planet Pattie, about the foible of life, resilience, and the occasional furniture-moving adventure.
You might also enjoy:
Nothing Is Ever Simple (Featuring a Refrigerator and My — GASP! — Underwear)
Refrigerator Roulette, Round Two
The Sun’s Sneaky Victory: My “Brilliant” Outdoor Freezer Defrost Debacle
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