Em Foye didn’t realize the two rings she lost paddleboarding with friends in the Town Beach on Saturday night, July 13, were missing until she was on her way to work on July 18, five overnights and accompanying tidal changes later.
Despite a lack of optimism, Foye posted of her mishap on the Mattapoisett Life Facebook page, after which Mattapoisett resident Julie Lariviere Clark read the post and shared an idea.
“You felt for someone and, hey, we have the means to help here,” realized Lariviere Clark, who enlisted the help of a relative, Fred Lorraine.
A retired craftsman who still enjoys his specialty in finishing boats, the 79-year-old Lorraine who has spent a lifetime on Mattapoisett’s beaches recently took up a new hobby. He bought himself a metal detector.
“He had told me before the end of this year he wanted to find something and find the owner and reconnect them,” recalls Lariviere Clark, who met with Lorraine at the beach on the morning of July 18.
“Em said she was over by the wall,” recalls Lorraine, who was admittedly overdressed for the two hours he would spend that first morning in 80-degree heat.
On that day, Lorraine tossed a penny into the sand so he could show Lariviere Clark how the metal detector works. He wound up finding two pennies, then the pinky (gold) ring.
“I was (texting) back and forth with Em – I didn’t know her,” said Lariviere Clark, who had to leave the site at 11:30 am for work. Not much later, she answered her cell phone. “Fred called, ‘Guess what, I found it!’ Fred found the gold ring.”
“The machine made a noise. I put the shovel in the ground and there was that ring. I was off the wall,” said Lorraine. “I was delighted. If she hadn’t called me, none of this would have happened.”
The ring that mattered more to Foye, a Claddagh ring her mother had brought back from a trip to Ireland, was still out there. Lariviere Clark connected Foye with Lorraine, and the two met at the beach on July 19.
“‘You must be Em, did you find your ring yet?’ People were recognizing us,” said Foye, quoting the reception she received when joining Lorraine on his second day at the site.
Walking toward the water on that second day, Lorraine heard “a good noise” and noted the favorable reading on his metal detector. He scooped the sand, dumped it aside and told Foye the ring was not in the hole as there was no more noise.
“And she looked (to the pile of sand), she said, ‘there it is!’” recalled Lorraine.
“It was sitting right on top,” said Foye. “We were there, maybe 30 minutes and dug three holes, and in the third hole there was my Claddagh.”
By 11:45 am, the two were celebrating and taking photos with both rings back on Foye’s hand. Lorraine, 79, insisted he have a little fun in the moment, so he asked for the ring and then told Foye, “I’m not getting down on one knee.” But he took her hand and slipped the Claddagh back on her finger.
People at the beach applauded the discovery.
“I wish we could have been there the following day, but I have pictures,” said Lariviere Clark. “When he had found the first one, I told Fred, ‘it’s got to be there.’ I was so happy when he texted me.”
Lorraine has embraced his now-successful hobby as a form of exercise.
“I wish I had started this when I was in my thirties and forties. To me, it’s like hunting for jellybeans at Easter time,” said Lorraine. “It doesn’t show much here,” he said, pointing to his midsection, “but I could be home with a can of beer watching a football game. You have to get out there and walk, and you have to bend over and dig.”
Foye was thrilled to note that other residents that own metal detectors offered to join the effort. It turns out Lorraine’s metal detector was the only one Foye would need. Had Lorraine not succeeded, Foye planned to bring a shovel to the beach.
“He calls me yesterday and tells me he told his grandkids, ‘this year I want to find a ring.’ Guess what I found,” said Foye, referencing Lorraine’s 2024 goal set during the winter months. “My mother said, ‘good thing you found it because I’m not going back (to Ireland) anytime soon.’”
Upon hearing the news, Lariviere Clark reminded Lorraine of his hobby wish to discover an item of importance and then locate its owner to reunite them.
“I said, ‘you did it Fred, but you did it a little backwards,’” Lariviere Clark joked of the reverse order of discovery. “Social media sometimes is like (ugh), but in other areas it’s a blessing.”
By Mick Colageo