Long lost wedding ring discovered during yard cleanup

by: Maggy Wolanske

Posted: Aug 28, 2023 / 08:30 PM MDT

Updated: Aug 28, 2023 / 08:30 PM MDT

(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Victor Vinson is a man on a mission, fixing up yards throughout Southern Colorado. During the summer months, he has donated his time to provide yard work free of charge to the elderly in Southern Colorado.

“Well, it started out that I got on the app Nextdoor and then somebody had contacted me,” Vinson. “I can’t really remember exactly how that happened, but a lady had broken both of her shoulders, and she had been served by code enforcement for the weeds growing in their yard. She’s an elderly lady, and she couldn’t do anything about it because she was in the hospital.”

It started off as one phone call, and now Vinson keeps getting notifications.

“Probably well over 50,” Vinson said. “They keep coming in constantly, you know, so I’m just as busy as I can be.”

Vinson recognized the growing need in the community for yard work and said the rain fall has made the weeds even worse.

“After I did this, this one lady’s yard, you know, I realized that this is a serious problem, and nobody’s looking at it,” Vinson said. “Nobody’s taking care of it. So, I just figured I’d start doing it and so I started getting on the app Nextdoor and then it was a domino effect, you know, of one person contacting another person saying, ‘oh, my neighbor’s in that situation, oh, my friend, is in that situation.”

Vinson does this all completely free of charge, out of the kindness in his heart, with his trusty lawn mower.

“My favorite part about doing this is just the community coming together,” Vinson said. “And that’s what I really love to see, it’s so impressive how people are actually responding in such a positive way.”

He is touching the lives of those he meets, including Michelle Searcy.

“It was a blessing,” Searcy said. “So, we started and he got people to come help and we would tackle the backyard later.”

Vinson, along with a team of other community members, came together to clean up Searcy’s backyard. Hiding in the weeds was something beautiful the group would discover.

“We filled the biggest dumpster that you can, that you can buy, up to the absolute top with things from her backyard,” Vinson said. “And then one of the volunteers, Diane, had shown up that day, and she was raking up the last pile of dirt that was going to go into the dumpster and she looked down and there was a silver wedding ring sticking out of the pile of dirt, and she picked it up and gave it to Michelle.”

Searcy recalled the moment of her husband’s passing and how she wore his ring after. She discovered it was missing and prayed to God it would be found again.

“For some reason, I lost it before I could take both bands out and place it and I didn’t think I’d ever find it,” Searcy said. “And I asked the Lord, ‘it’s your will be done, maybe you return it,’ but you know, you just pray, pray, pray.”

Now, Searcy wears the found band on her finger with a big smile, and thanked her new friend Vinson.

“Now we united together, and we have our rings together, and he’d been past seven years,” Searcy said. “All because of this man right here who blessed me, that helped me do this yard and all the wonderful people and the blessing of my family.”

Vinson is currently undergoing several health problems but shared his vision of organizing more cleanups to come.

“I’m going to have to take a little bit of time off,” Vinson said. “But that, that just means that I can take time off from mowing lawns, but I’m not going to take any time off from organizing all of this stuff to keep this going.”