12:00a.m. 19th May 2008

| By Blythe Seinor

Once upon a time, in the year 1920, a young Brisbane tailor named Cliff was in love with a Scottish girl named Sarah.

He bought a diamond ring and asked her to marry him.

She said yes.

A couple of years later they became Mr and Mrs Priestley and eventually had two daughters and a son.

When Mrs Priestley passed away in 1988 she left her engagement ring to her eldest daughter, Jean McPhee, who treasured it dearly because it always made her think of her mother.

So you can imagine how devastated Mrs McPhee was on Saturday night when she realised she had gone shopping at Kawana Shoppingworld with the ring on her hand, and returned home without it.

“I couldn’t sleep, it took me a long time to get to sleep,” Mrs McPhee said.

She believes the ring slipped off her hand when she passed some shopping bags to her daughter.

“I think when my daughter was going to try on some tracksuit pants at Fashion Fair I handed over some parcels,” she said.

“I went and sat on the seat outside and in handing over the parcel I think it came off the little finger of my left hand. Mum had small fingers.

“It wasn’t until I went to bed (that I) noticed there were only two rings there. I thought I had taken it off, so I went down behind the dressing table with the torch on my hands and knees.

“(I searched) everywhere I could think of, everywhere I’ve touched.”

The great-grandmother said she had hoped to pass the ring on to one of her daughters.

“Although it had a beautiful diamond in it, monetary value doesn’t come into it, I’d just like it back.”

Acting sergeant Sue Prizeman said she hoped an honest person would find the ring and return it to its rightful owner.

“We get lost property jobs all the time, but probably not something so sentimental,” she said.

But she said it was unlikely the ring would turn up at a local pawn shop.

“It’s a very old ring and wouldn’t hold much monetary value – its value is only sentimental.”

Anyone with information should contact Maroochydore Police on 5475 2444.

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