Man Proposes After Miraculously Finding Lost Engagement Ring in Tornado Rubble
A couple in Texas got engaged after a group of volunteers helped find a lost engagement ring during a post-tornado cleanup effort.
Last week, after a tornado ripped through Lamar County, Texas, and destroyed their house, Dakota Hudson — who was planning to propose to his girlfriend, Lauren Patterson — thought he would never see the ring again, which he had hidden in their house.
"I told her, I was like, 'I lost your engagement ring and your wedding band,' and she told me it was alright," Hudson told local news outlet KXII. Hudson added that his girlfriend told him "all she needed was me."
However, thanks to the help of some volunteers, Hudson and Patterson found a little light in the dark.
When the Paris Junior College softball team, the Dragons, arrived to help clean up, they were determined to find the missing ring.
"When you tell 20 girls someone is going to get engaged if they find a ring, they are going to find it," he continued.
That's when one of the volunteers stumbled upon the ring.
"I was just kind of digging through the mud in this certain particular spot, and I kept digging there," Dragons player Kate Rainey told KXII.
"I don’t know why ... I felt led to dig right there, and I found a little piece of a metal circle, and it was not metal. It was gold. I didn’t believe it. When I found it, I was like, 'There’s no way I just found it!'" Rainey continued.
The ring was reportedly found buried 2 inches in the ground, roughly 7 yards from the closet it had been stored in.
With the ring located, Hudson wasted no time. He immediately got down on one knee and proposed to Patterson.
"Finally, you had a moment to smile, and it was a real smile. It was a very surreal moment," Patterson told KXII.