‘God is great’: Myrtle Beach vacationer reunited with rings dedicated to late wife

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) – One man can breathe a sigh of relief after he was reunited with a special memento that he lost during his vacation in Myrtle Beach.

Patrick Waddell, who is vacationing from Charlotte, said that during his stay on Saturday at Ocean Lakes Campground, he lost his necklace that had his and his late wife’s wedding rings on it.

The wedding rings are looped together so that they can’t be separated. His wife died from colon cancer almost four years ago.

Waddell said around 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, Graham Golf Cars called him and told him the good news: his necklace had been found.

“My rings have been found! Slight ran over, but still together non the less (sic). God is great!” Waddell wrote on Facebook.

My rings have been found! Slight ran over, but still together non the less. God is great! I can't begin to thank...
Posted by Patrick Waddell on Tuesday, July 30, 2019

A family said that their son had found the rings on Saturday but didn’t think they were real. But the son saw a social media post from Ocean Lakes Campground about the rings and said, “Look mama those are the rings we saw!”

The family gave them to an employee at Graham Golf Cars and that’s when Waddell received the call that they had been found.

“The lady at the golf place pointed out what stood out to her was how she found them. The smaller one flipped inside my larger ring as if it were protecting it. Total tear jerker,” Waddell told WMBF News.

The family didn’t give their name, but Waddell said he will be forever grateful to them.

“I don’t know who you are, but I thank you from the bottom of my heart. May God Bless the rest of your week here at the local camp ground (sic),” Waddell said in a Facebook post.

Waddell said he can foresee a jeweler asking to fix the slight bend in the rings, but he said he’s not going to get them fixed.

“To which I’ll say the rings are like a marriage. They’re real. They aren’t perfect, but every flaw tells a story. In all the highs and all the lows the journey is what molds the partnership and all the imperfections make them perfection.”

Waddell and his two daughters are now staying in North Myrtle Beach with his late wife’s family until Friday.