Widow's joy as lost wedding ring is found after appeal

Carol Drummond a housekeeper at the Innkeeper Lodge in Costorphine found a wedding ring lost by a guest during their stay over Christmas. Picture Ian Rutherford

Margaret McLennan feared she had lost her wedding band forever after she realised it was missing from her finger following a visit to Edinburgh’s Christmas market at the end of November.

But yesterday the 77-year-old’s luck turned after the ring – which she lost just months after the death of husband George in September – was tracked down.

And it turns out the band wasn’t lost at the Christmas markets at all but was instead dropped in a corridor at the Innkeeper’s Lodge in Corstorphine, where Margaret was staying during her visit.

Margaret McLennan who lost her wedding ring and her late husband George McLennan

It was spotted by eagle-eyed Carol Drummond, who has been working as a housekeeper at the hotel on and off for around 40 years.

When Carol spotted the ring on the floor at the top of some stairs and immediately went to find out if there were any guests called Margaret but there was none at the time.

The 58-year-old decided to hold on to the ring to stop it from getting stolen in the hope someone might come forward before seeing Margaret’s appeal in the Evening News.

“I said that rings a bell and ran upstairs to have a look and it’s plain band and it says George and Margaret and the date,” she said.

“It was just sitting at the top of the stairs and I picked it up – I was waiting for someone to ask but no one has. I thought I’m not leaving that there, it’s too precious, it’s waiting for someone to steal it.”

And it’s not the first time Carol has helped reunite hotel guests with sentimental belongings.

She said: “There was another gentleman who’d got married who left a ring – he left it in the bedroom [but] this was just a mystery because it was in the corridor and we didn’t know who it belonged to.

“I’d be ecstatic to get it back if it was something that you thought you’d never see again. Facebook does have its moments – it does get people things back.”

Carol knew it was the right ring because the engraving of ‘George Margaret 8.6.64’ matched Margaret’s description.

Margaret has worn it ever since she married George at St John’s Church in Portobello aged 25. The couple eventually settled in the north of England near Darlington but regularly returned to Edinburgh to visit relatives before George passed away from a lung condition.

Margaret said she was “absolutely astonished” the ring had been found so quickly, admitting she had thought her chances of finding it were “not good at all”.

She said: “My grandson has been inundated with people trying to help on Facebook.

“There was one with an engraving but it wasn’t my engraving. My finger looks terrible without it. I keep trying on my other rings – I’m having to get them all resized, they are all slipping about.

“If it’s been found in the hotel I can’t believe it – it’s the one place I thought it wasn’t.”