A prized family possession, a stranger and a miracle on the beach that renewed one man’s faith in the decency of mankind.
Tim Butcher, a Briton living in Cape Town, received the call no one wants to receive. His father had died. The call set into motion events that began with sadness at the loss of a loved one, led to guilt and ended in the joy of being blessed by another soul in a miracle on the beach.
After the funeral, Butcher’s mother showed him his father’s will. His father had left him a gold ring, worn for decades by his father and before him, by his own father. The ring helped to console Butcher in his grief.
Later, Butcher went for a walk on the beach. As he walked, the wind was fierce, the sand wind-borne. When he got home and lit a fire, he looked at his left hand. The ring was not there.
You can imagine how he felt: shock, horror, remorse, anger, powerlessness. Mostly, however, he felt guilt. He looked the next day, but he found nothing. Hoping the wind had buried the ring in the sand, he contacted two detectionists, people who use metal detectors to locate objects. One lent him his gear. He found an old mobile phone, a 50 cent coin and a lot of bottle tops but no ring.
Eight days after Butcher lost the ring, a third detectionist arrived. And that is where the story of a miracle on the beach began. thestrangerandthering
