Woman Can Only Praise God When Wedding Ring Found in Aftermath of Hurricane Ian
Ashley Garner of Fort Myers, Florida is one of many residents that lived through the terror of Hurricane Ian.
An evacuation order was reportedly delayed for about a day longer than what it perhaps should have been due to the fact that Fort Myers wasn’t expected to be a part of ground zero in Hurricane Ian’s path, according to the New York Times.
Like many other residents, the Garners had made a choice to hunker down and ride out the storm.
They made their preparations, and then three days prior to the pounding of Hurricane Ian, Ashley decided to head out to the garage and do some pounding of her own on the punching bag.
She said it was something she hadn’t done in several years, and she removed all her rings, including her wedding ring, and placed them on a chair, according to Insider.
“So I took off all of my rings, completely forgot because that’s not normal for me to take off my rings. I sleep with them — I don’t take them off,” Garner said.
When she went out to retrieve them the next day, she found that the chair had been moved, and her wedding ring was missing.
“Obviously, it’s a symbol that means so much to me, but it was out of my control,” Garner said. “I couldn’t do anything other than look for it, and if I couldn’t find it, that’s all I can do.”
She had the entire family helping her look for the ring, and they searched for it for two days.
When they weren’t able to find it, Garner said she just made a decision to accept that it was gone and redirected the family’s focus toward surviving through the looming crisis of Hurricane Ian.
The winds of over 100 mph left an incredible amount of destruction, including massive piles of debris from trees, brush and whatever else was unable to remain secured as the storm rolled through, according to NBC.
“We’re about 10 minutes into cleaning, and my husband is cleaning up the brush and the trees right next to the garage door,” Garner said. “There’s a pile of brush and trees, and he moves over one pile, and the ring was right there.”
“I just sat on the curb, and I prayed to God and thanked him for providing and giving us a sign that there’s hope for the community,” Garner added.
Garner made a point of posting on Facebook about the miracle God did using a hurricane to bring her precious wedding ring back to her, and encourage her with hope for the future.
