Do You Believe in Miracles? — Yes!

Quick quiz: Who uttered these words and under what circumstances:  “Do you believe in miracles? . . . YES!”

Hint:  You’re most apt to know if you’re a sports fan.  The answer is at at the bottom . . .

My focus here has nothing to do with sports.  Rather it’s wedding rings — actually a specific wedding ring, the one my beloved Margie put on my ring finger (fourth finger, left hand) 57 years ago, in Altadena, Calif.

OK, here is the miracle.

Margie and I attended my 60th reunion at Princeton this spring.  And somewhere during that wonderful experience my wedding ring came off — I know not how or where. I was certain it was gone for good.  Still, to report my loss, I wrote classmate Arthur Eschenlauer, who along with his wife Janet was co-chair for the reunion.

Word came back:  YES, he wrote — it had been found. He had no idea by whom or where.  It was turned into lost and found.

Talk about miracles!  He mailed the ring back to me via USPS and I don’t know when I’ve been happier to open a package!

OK, about the quote above.  It was uttered exultantly by famed sports broadcaster Al Michaels, who took pride — until that moment — in his ability to remain cool and objective.  The USA hockey team was just seconds away from recording the biggest upset in Olympic hockey history, beating the Soviet Union.

“My concentration is as intense as it has ever been in my career,” he writes, in his book YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS UP.

“With 10 seconds to go, the crowd begins to count the seconds in unison. . . The Soviets are pressing in the U.S. end but the puck comes behind the net and gets cleared to center ice with about six seconds left. . . . The game is all but over. . . . A word pops into my head — miraculous.”

A split second later, it gets morphed into a question and answer: “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”

OK, so only family and friends cared a whit about my lost wedding ring. But being reunited with it was to me a miracle. Yes!