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Sandra Wilkes didn’t even have to look this year for the perfect Christmas gift for her son, Norman Myers. The gift found her.

It’s a gift that has traveled more than 1,000 miles during the past two years. A gift that had meaning when she gave it to Norman for Christmas two years ago before he graduated from Paola High School but is even more special now. And it’s a gift that has convinced Sandra that Christmas miracles really do come true.

“I was in Walmart when I got the call,” Sandra said.

The voice on the other end of the phone during that Dec. 5 call was that of Rosemary Kaiser, Paola High School secretary and bookkeeper.

“Sandra, did your son lose a class ring?” Rosemary asked.

The question immediately brought back memories of the summer after Norman’s high school graduation in 2007, when Norman solemnly told his mother he lost his ring, thinking it was either at a friend’s house or somewhere around their Paola home. Norman received the gift for Christmas in 2006 but only got a chance to wear it for a few months before it was lost.

“Well, I have some news for you,” Rosemary said. “It’s been found in southern Louisiana, and the lady that found it wants to talk to you personally.”

Sandra froze in the middle of the aisle, right next to the Christmas garland she was considering buying to decorate the school bus she drives in Paola for First Student.

Rosemary gave Sandra the number to Montegut Middle School in Houma, La., where secretary Dorothy Pitre called Paola High School looking for the rightful owner of a class ring. Sandra wasted no time punching in the numbers on her cell phone.

Dorothy had quite a story to tell Sandra.

The ring was found more than a year ago by a middle school student walking along the side of the road in Houma, La. The student was showing off his newfound treasure in school when a counselor saw it and said he needed to turn it in.

It sat in the office for months, waiting for someone to claim it, until Dorothy took it upon herself to solve the puzzle of the mysterious ring.

Norman’s personalization of the ring helped its eventual return. The ring has the word “Paola” engraved on it along with No. 84, his football jersey number, in honor of the team going to the state title game. It also had his name engraved along the inside of the ring.

Dorothy said her Internet research first brought up Fort Scott Community College’s Paola campus, but officials there directed her to Paola High School.

Sandra said she was amazed at the story and couldn’t wait to see the ring again. She told Dorothy she was at Walmart and would buy a padded envelope and ship it to the school with $10 in it for return shipping.

Lisa Martin, a teacher at Montegut Middle School, overheard the conversation and would have nothing of that. She said she would mail the ring to Sandra.

“If it was my child’s ring, I would hope someone would step forward and do the same,” Lisa said.

No longer needing an envelope, Sandra instead shopped for the perfect thank you card. She finally found one that expressed her amazement in the generosity of the strangers who helped return her son’s ring.

“God sends us special people to help us on our way, and through them, we’re reminded of His loving care each day,” the card read. Inside it stated, “Thanking God for the blessing of wonderful people like you.”

Perhaps the most bizarre part of the story is that neither Sandra nor her son have ever been to Louisiana.

Sandra said Norman was planning a summer trip to the South after graduation, but he and his friends never went.

Some of Sandra’s colleagues have suggested the ring may have stowed away on a school bus sent to Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, but the ring wasn’t lost until the summer of 2007.

Regardless of how it arrived on the Gulf Coast, Sandra is happy to have it home, and she has already wrapped it and placed it under the family Christmas tree to surprise Norman when he comes home for Christmas break from Kansas State University.

This time around, Sandra is going to keep a close watch on it.

“I don’t know if I’m going to let him take it back to college,” Sandra said with a laugh. “Maybe I’ll tie it around his neck.”

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