Hurricane Ian: Florida woman finds lost wedding ring in brush pile after storm

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A Florida woman who lost her wedding ring a few days before Hurricane Ian got a big surprise while cleaning up after the Category 4 storm raked southwest Florida.

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Ashley Garner, of Fort Myers, found the ring in a pile of brush outside of her garage as she and her husband began to clear away debris caused by the hurricane, which hit the area on Sept. 30.

“Speechless. God will provide, always have, always will,” Garner wrote in a Facebook post on Monday. “If this isn’t a sign I don’t know what is.”

Garner, her husband and three children had searched outside their home for two days without success.

“I just accepted that it was gone,” Garner told The Associated Press. “It was only a thing. It’s replaceable, and I just let it go. We knew the hurricane was coming, so we just kind of said goodbye.”

The family rode out the storm and began cleaning up the area after the storm moved north.

“We’re about 10 minutes into cleaning, and my husband is cleaning up the brush and the trees right next to the garage door,” Garner told the AP. “There’s a pile of brush and trees, and he moves over one pile, and the ring was right there.”

Garner said her neighborhood did not experience the flooding that hit many parts of Florida. Had the waters rushed through, the ring likely would have been swept away.

“I just sat on the curb, and I prayed to God and thanked him for providing and giving us a sign that there’s hope for the community,” Garner told the AP.

“With so much devastation this gave us a little hope,” Garner wrote on Facebook.

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