TROY, Mo. —
She was a grieving granddaughter searching for a sign: something for Shawna Pettus to feel connected with her beloved grandma, who passed away in February.
“It was really emotional,” she said.
What she found: an old high school ring, for a guy named Paul. According to inscriptions on the ring, he was a football player for Troy Buchanan High School, class of 1990.
“She didn't have a lot of personal items,” said Pettus, besides a jewelry box that survived multiple moves and a fire.
She had no idea who this “Paul” might be, neither did any of her relatives. In Bonne Terre, their family lives 100 miles from Troy. But she just couldn't let the mystery go.
“My own daughter's graduating this year,” she said. “I thought maybe this ring means something to someone out there.”
One day she unraveled the wad of bandages used as a makeshift ring-sizer embedded on the ring; washing away the gunk of old adhesive, she saw the clue she needed: a last name.
“And I'm just like, 'Oh, I finally have something to go on.'”
“I haven't seen that thing in 30+ years,” said Paul.
Paul Vaccaro, that is, Troy Buchanan High School, class of 1990.
Nor had he thought of it much until recently, with his own son graduating high school, too. He gave it to an old girlfriend shortly after his own graduation and had just recently inquired about getting a replica made.
“I just thought, you know, we both went to the same high school,” he said. “It just meant a lot to me to pass it along to him.”
Then — by chance — he opened a Facebook message from a stranger: Pettus, asking he was the Paul Vaccaro to whom the ring belonged.
“I was like, wow, that is my ring,” he said. “I even took out old pictures. And there's I mean, that was my class ring. So then it started getting real.”
Vaccaro had never heard of Pettus or her grandmother — nor was her grandmother familiar with Vaccaro's high school girlfriend. It remains a mystery how the ring wound up in her grandmother's possession, and why she kept it all of those years, but they both believe something bigger than all of them had a hand in this.
"I guess just never lose faith that life is really magical and maybe it's just not a chance all the time. Maybe things are lined up just the way they should be," said Pettus. "In the case of this ring, maybe if you had it in his possession, he would have lost it anyway. Leaving it with my grandmother for 30 years in safekeeping, maybe that's what was meant to be."
They've forged a new bond — over stories, over texts, over a ring.
“It's just I feel like, you know, our family has gained a friend with their family,” said Vaccaro. “I don't know how timing could have been any better than the way it happened.”
In periods of transition for the two families — in a time of distance in the world — they're thankful their paths intersected.
"It just makes me appreciate life and just connections with people, even strangers," said Pettus. "I needed this experience. It's been cathartic in many ways."
"You know, there's a lot of good people left in the world, I believe," said Vaccaro. "We haven't lost all hope yet."
Perhaps that's the sign Shawna's grandma wanted all of us to find.