diamonds may be forever, but unfortunately the prongs holding them in are not

Have I ever told you the story about the time I lost my diamond?  No? Allow me to share.

My husband asked me to marry him in March 2000.  He gave me a gorgeous diamond ring which I treasured instantly as most every new bride-to-be is sure to do.

Fast forward to that fall, October to be specific, when we were at the Dixie Classic Fair with tens of thousands of other people.  I was walking into the Annex building when I noticed something felt a little funny on my finger.  Sure enough, I looked down and the center diamond - setting and all - had fallen off of my engagement ring.

Fortunately, I retraced my steps and found the ring - setting and all - about ten steps back amidst the crowds of people walking down the aisles in the Annex building.  There it was lying on the floor, sparkling away in the middle of all kinds of dirt and filth from all those people's footsteps.  I quickly closed it up in a small container I had in my purse and we got it repaired by the jeweler that weekend.

In that ten minutes though?  In the ten little minutes that my diamond was lost I was about to have a heart attack. I wanted to shout to everyone to FREEZE!  I wanted to cry (in fact I think I did shed a tear or two in my anxiety-panic-stricken-overwhelming-thoughts of never having the precious ring that my fiance had worked so hard for me to have).  I wasn't even married yet and I'd already lost [part of] my engagement ring!!!

I suppose I am fortunate that I was newly engaged and still getting used to wearing such a piece of jewelry on my hand at all times.  I was so conscious of it that I immediately noticed when something was "off" so that was a blessing.

Have you ever lost something valuable to you?  What did you do?  Were you able to find it?