For 24 years, Tina Toves' shimmering wedding ring has proudly been fixed to her finger.
"It's everything," said Toves, who lives in DeSoto. "It's been the symbol of the relationship that I've had with my husband. It's been through a lot. And it just reminds me everyday of where we started and where we are now."
So when it went missing this past week, she was beyond devastated.
"Honestly, in this day and age, I really didn't expect it to come back," said Toves.
That day, she'd gone to her local Kroger store to pick up some Christmas pajama sets she'd seen there.
She remembers paying for them -- even telling an inquiring man who wanted to buy some for his niece and nephew where in the store he could find them. Then, she went on her way.
"I never felt it fall off my hand," said Toves.
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It wasn't until she got home that she realized her ring was no longer on her finger. She emptied her purse, looked through her bags, and searched every inch of her car -- but it was nowhere to be found.
Frantic, she went back to the Kroger store and started looking under cars that were in the area where she had parked earlier.
"The chances of somebody finding your ring and then finding you are next to none," said Toves.
She eventually went inside the store and asked the manager if anyone had found a ring. It turns out someone had.
The man who'd asked her where he could find the pajamas, a local funeral director named John David Kilgore, spotted it on top of one of the pajama sets.
He and a cashier intially tried looking at receipts to see if they could find Toves' name or her contact information. When that turned up nothing, he left his name and number with the store and asked them to give it to Toves if she came back looking for the ring.
"He had my ring," said Toves. "And I couldn't have been happier about anything."
NBC 5 spoke to Kilgore over the phone. He politely declined to go on camera, insisting he didn't deserve any extra attention or praise for what he did.
He simply said when he found the ring he "could tell by looking at it that it meant an awful lot to somebody" -- and he wanted to do whatever he could to return it.
Toves called him and they met at the West-Hurtt Funeral Home, where Kilgore works.
"As soon as I saw him, I just hugged him," said Toves. "I had tears rolling down my eyes."
She hasn't taken her eyes off the ring since.
"It was a miracle," said Toves. "And he was just a blessing to me and my family."
