A Christmas Love Story: A Girl, A Lost Ring And A Conductor

This is at once a fairy tale about childhood friends who would find love as adults and a feel-good Christmas story about loss and an act of kindness that brings a surprising happy ending. It is about a girl and a missing engagement ring and a train conductor. And such a story it is that it would end up becoming front page and big news all over New England.

Katelyn Peckham’s parents now live in Mystic, but as her mother Donna explained, “We’re really Ledyard/Gales Ferry people.”

And so the story begins in Ledyard and Gales Ferry.

Katelyn met a boy named Zach Thompson in their third grade class in Juliet W. Long School. They would become fast friends and remain so for years and years. After graduating from Ledyard High School in 2004, Katelyn attended Endicott College in Beverly, MA where she studied communications and landed a job as a media planner in an advertising agency in Boston. And Zach studied biology at UMass.

They fell in love.

“He proposed to me in May and while I knew my parents had given him my mother's first engagement diamond over Christmas the year before, I was completely shocked when he popped the question,” Katelyn described how it went.

The stone in the ring was from Donna’s engagement ring given to her by her husband, Katelyn’s dad.

“I thought that maybe someday she’d want it. So when (Katelyn and Zach) talked about getting engaged I offered it to them. They had it reset, made it their own.  So it was horrifying for her when she lost it,” Donna explained.

Now here comes the warm, fuzzy Christmasy part.

So Katelyn lost the ring. Maybe on the train? She wasn’t sure, but it was definitely gone.

“When I realized I lost the ring I burst into tears and couldn't stop thinking about how I would ever tell my fiance - and my mom. The ring is so sentimental to me and I was crushed to think I'd never see it again,” she said.

So she called the train station Lost-and-Found right away to report her missing ring. She didn’t have much hope at first.

Let’s have Katelyn tell the rest of the story:

“After waiting 15 minutes, I knew I would never feel right if I just sat and waited for someone to find it. So I ran to the train station and went from train to train looking like a crazy lady crying my eyes out. I was walking through aisles of the trains asking people to search under their seats. Everyone gasped when I told them what I had lost. And it just made me cry harder. But everyone dropped what they were doing to scour the train.” 

“Finally I ran into two conductors that I recognized and asked them if their train could have been the one I was on. They didn't know and brought me to the train master who figured out the train the ring could be on had just pulled in to the station. I ran over to the track as it unloaded and stopped as many people I could, asking them if they found a ring. I figured if someone stole it and then saw how desperate I was, they may just give it back.

“When I got on the empty train I knew it was my last hope, since it was the only place I could potentially find the ring. And as I started to search I heard a man say, "Are you looking for this?" and there was a conductor holding up my ring. I was hysterical I was so happy and thanked him over and over. I was so shaken up that I ran out of the train station and back to work to tell everyone I had found the ring.” 

“Everyone was so relieved when I found it and wanted to hear how I got it back. I was happy that I got a chance to thank the conductor, Tom Booth, later in the afternoon, but was shocked by how interested the media was. I guess it is a great story, but it was a very emotional day for me. And even though I had found the ring I was very upset for the rest of the day.” 

“I was so happy - and lucky - to get a happy ending. It means so much to me that Tom did the right thing. I hope everyone can do something kind and helpful to someone else this holiday season - and anytime for that matter.” 

“This Christmas is going to be one to remember. I will never live this down, but am lucky to be in love and to have my beautiful ring back! I don't need any other gifts!”