We had a young, sweet, beautiful couple who decided to get married here. During the rehearsal on Friday evening, the bride’s father gave a toast and speech about his daughter growing up to become the woman she was, and seeing her fall in love with her fiance and all the other memories they shared together. During the speech, he told a story about the necklace that had hung from his neck for 24 years. It was a gold chain with a small gold baby ring attached at the bottom. It was the bride’s baby ring that was gifted to him in honor of is daughter the day she was born some two and a half decades before. He had hung the ring on a chain that day and had never once removed it from his neck in 24 years, until that evening as he gave the necklace to his future son-in-law. It was truly an emotional and heartfelt speech that deeply touched all their family and friends.
The following day, the day of the wedding, the groom and his groomsmen had arrived several hours before the wedding, so they decided to play a quick game of football in the field by the groom’s room. The groom, still wearing the necklace the bride’s father had given him the night before, played as well. As expected, during the game, a groomsman had accidentally pulled on the chain in an attempt to tackle him. The chain link then broke and flew in one direction and the tiny gold ring shot in the other. The groomsmen panicked and immediately began searching yet to come up empty handed. The child size ring the bride’s father had worn and protected for 24 years, had been lost in less than 24 hours. The groom, coming to us in tears, asked if by chance if there was anything we could do to help. Michael then went straight to our house and returned with his metal detector.
Soon after starting searching, the chain was found only a few feet away, but no ring. During this time, the brides mother arrived and was curious as to why the all the groomsmen, as well as Michael and myself, were pacing and staring at the ground. Our upset and panicked groom told her, tears in his eyes, that his soon to be bride’s baby ring, that he hadn’t had for 24 hours had been lost. She gave him a soft loving smile, with tears streaming down her face too, she said, Mary is our daughter and we love her, she’s going to be your wife and we know you love her, and I truly believe the Proctors love her too. Just know that there will always be a small part of Mary here at Proctor Farm. At this time, all of us were sobbing.
With determination, Michael set out again to find it. After an hour of searching, the metal detector started to set of the high pitched screech sound, meaning that it had found gold, and all the groomsman instantly dove to that spot. The groom raised his arm to show he had found the ring. The entirety of the groomsmen began to cheer and yell so loud that the brides mother, who was in the brides room heard them. She came running to the field while crying tears of joy. It was one of the most emotional moments we’ve experienced here at Proctor Farm. It was an emotional beginning to a wonderful day and it will stay in our hearts forever.