'Miracle in the Persian Gulf'– Good Samaritans Help Find Lost Wedding Ring That Man Hasn't Taken off in 51 Years
From England comes a story via Dubai of extraordinary human kindness shown to a man who had lost his wedding ring.
Chris Brightmore was visiting family in the UAE in the week before Christmas when a ring that had not left his finger in 51 years slipped off into the Persian Gulf near Jumeira.
Diving down about three feet to the sand, he frantically looked for the ring but could not find it. As he emerged, he faced the prospect of telling his wife the unhappy news as she lay on the beach ahead of him.
Expecting sorrow, his wife Kathy was “kindness personified” and jogged down into the waves to help him search, but with neither masks nor snorkels, they shortly gave up.
Brightmore’s son-in-law Philip suggested he publicize his plight on a Facebook page called “British Dads Dubai” to see if anyone was able to help.
“We did, and the response was overwhelming,” Brightmore, from Grimsby, told local news. “Among the dozens of kindly responses, one man offered to loan us his underwater metal detector and another said he had his own jewelry shop and that he would make me a replacement as close to the original as possible and, because of the intensely sentimental value, he would give it to me for free.”
Two days later, Chris and Philip returned to the same beach armed with the metal detector and snorkeling gear.
“We spent two hours diving to the sea bed but the water was so buoyant that it was impossible to stay down long enough to search,” Brightmore said.
One might think that he had exhausted the supply of Good Samaritans among the British visitors and expats in Dubai, but they’d be wrong.
Another couple swam up and asked if Chris was “the gentleman that has lost his wedding ring.”
UK diver Adam Whitehead who helped find the ring – credit Chris Brightmore“The man said, ‘well for someone who has been married that long and has never had the ring off his finger until now, it would be my honor to help you find it, if you would allow me,’” Brightmore told Grimsby Live.
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“It turned out that he was a former professional diver who liked to dive in Dubai as a hobby at weekends.”
Even with the diving equipment, they had no luck and were about to concede defeat for good when the diver, Adam Whitehead, went down one more time with the detector and came up shouting “Eureka!” He had found it 10 feet down in about 3 inches of sand.
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Brightmore insists that the ring will never leave his sight again and that precautions will be taken from now on whenever he plans on getting wet.
Sharing the whole saga on the British Dads page, Brightmore reports that it has been inundated with people labeling it the “Miracle in the Gulf” and saying how it restored their faith in humanity.