Woman finds wedding rings five years later

Continued...
She met Ambrose — Bruce to family and friends — through a mutual friend. He was from Oregon and in the Army. She was from Ireland and a student nurse at a hospital.

Kathleen wanted to get a good look at Bruce before she agreed to go out with him. One night he came to the hospital, and she went to the front door. But there was a mandatory blackout during that time, and it was too dark to see. Someone shined a flashlight toward Bruce's face.

"All I saw is that he had such pretty teeth," she said with a chuckle. "How silly."

They dated and then corresponded by letter when military responsibilities took Bruce away. He proposed in one of those letters, and she said yes. He had his parents, who lived in Mount Angel at the time, purchase the rings at a Portland jewelry store and shipped them to him. His family also shipped a wedding dress for Kathleen.

The rings arrived in time for their wedding Feb. 3, 1945, at a small church near the hospital. But not the dress.

When the war ended, Bruce had to return to the States. By that time, Kathleen was pregnant with their first child. He didn't want her to be alone so he took her home to her family in Ireland to have the baby. Bruce didn't get to see his daughter until she was 1. That's when Kathleen and the baby finally were able to join him.

They raised three children and lived in Albany before settling in Salem, in the house where Kathleen still lives. Bruce worked for years at Teledyne Wah Chang. She spent some years working as a nursing aide.

After he died, she wore his ring with hers — until that day at Costco, when they vanished.

For Christmas that year, Schaecher opened a special gift that included an antique ring similar to hers and a gold band.Continued...



"My children bought me these rings to fill the void, and they have very much done so," she said.

Sort of. But not really.

And then came one of the happiest days of her life, Oct. 6, 2008. It was a Monday, and she was cleaning the freezer.

She noticed something round and shiny at the bottom of the chest, which is about 3 feet deep. Suddenly, she realized what it was. Her ring.

Her first thought was how sad it was not to see her husband's ring nearby. Then she glanced at the bucket on the floor and there, beside a rag she had been using, was his.

Schaecher cried, and she left the contents of her freezer on the garage floor. She called her daughter-in-law, Nancy Schaecher, who was with her that day five years ago.

"Her voice was all shaky," Nancy said. "I thought somebody must have died."