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Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008

WR man reunited with ring lost for 36 years

In the parable of the prodigal son, the father says: "We will make merry and rejoice, for what is lost is found."

Byron resident Michael Osborne is rejoicing right now because what was lost to him has been found - all through the determination of a local school teacher.

The story begins back in 1960. Michael's father was serving overseas as a naval chief torpedoman. After completing his mission, Michael's father's air transport home crashed into another plane, and his aircraft went down into the sea. A friend who survived told the Osborne family that as the waves were overcoming him, Michael was crying out to God to take care of his family.

Michael believes that God heard his father's last prayer. Michael's mother had a very difficult time in the years after her husband's death. Many times, a cookie at school served as both breakfast and lunch. Michael's mother was hit by a car, and he and his sisters took care of themselves for several days before Naval Family Relief stepped in.

"It was only after many weeks did we find out about our mom and could go see her," recalled Michael. "God kept us all together and my mom lived."

A series of financial difficulties, including losing their home, brought the family from Norfolk, Va., to Warner Robin to stay with family members. The ordeals that had become typical for the Osborne family started to take their toll on the children.

By his own account, Michael was not a good student and received paddling from both the teachers and the principal for his behavior. He walked home every day for lunch where, if he was lucky, he could put together a mayonnaise sandwich.

Both of Michael's sisters dropped out of Warner Robins High. He would learn later that part of the reason was that neither sister could stand the constant teasing for wearing the same dress to school day after day.

But two teachers, Mr. Willequer and Mrs. Stanescu, made a difference in Michael's life by holding him responsible and providing him extra time and training to change him and help him achieve his goal.

That goal? To be the first person in his family to graduate from high school.

Michael had gotten to the age where he could work. He moved furniture at Burke's when he was 13 and used the money to help his mom and buy Christmas presents for his family. He threw newspapers and later got a job at the Rama Theater, making 60 cents an hour.

With that money, he put a class ring on layaway at Bush's jewelry store.

To pay for the ring, Michael worked every hour he could, knowing he couldn't ask his mother for money since the family had so little. The owner of the jewelry store taught him how to repair clocks. It was a difficult time for a young man, but Michael persevered and earned the money for the ring.

And he finished high school.

Working several jobs, Michael put himself through Middle Georgia College and earned an associate degree. He decided to enter the Navy for a few years and then returned to college for a bachelor's degree in geology. There he met his wife, Betty.

After working as a geologist and then starting his own repair business, Michael decided he wanted to do more than fix typewriters and copiers. He went back to school and got a master's degree in science education from Fort Valley State. He has been teaching for 21 years.

Michael was at his teaching job at Robins Elementary a couple of weeks ago when the secretary called in over the intercom. She told him she needed to ask him a few questions and for him to just answer them and bear with her.

She enquired about Michael's class ring: Did he ever have one, what did it look like and when did he graduate?

It seems that after only having the treasured class ring a few months, Michael had lost it. Because of the hard work he had done to earn the ring and the fact that it had been a source of pride for his family, he had never replaced it

"That ring gave my family hope. One of us will make it in life is what my sisters said to me. So another ring could have never taken its place," he explained.

It turns out that all these years later a teacher at Warner Robins High, Kelly Jackson, had the ring. Her father-in-law had been tilling his yard, land where he had tilled every year for a garden for the last 20 years, and noticed a ring in the dirt.

Taking the ring, emblazoned with both the year and Michael's initials, Kelly checked the old yearbooks at Warner Robins High to figure out to whom the ring might belong.

After receiving the news that his class ring, lost for 36 years, had been found, Michael drove over to Kelly's house to retrieve it. Michael remembered that he had been at his sister's house the last time he had worn the ring. His sister lived in the house where eventually Don Jackson would find the ring outside in the dirt.

Kelly Jackson downplays her role in the story, saying that she only wanted to do what was right.

"It wasn't our ring to keep," she said. "I felt it was important to try and return it to whoever had lost it."

As a teacher, Kelly said she understood the pride that someone has when they finish high school - especially in a situation like Michael's.

Since reclaiming his senior class ring, Michael hasn't taken it off his finger. For him, it is a constant reminder of what he achieved, both in his family and for his family, by finishing high school.

"I try to teach my students goal setting and that when you accomplish your own goals, that many times you are fulfilling goals for those who love you," he said.

"I still remember my dad's dying breath - Lord take care of my family. God will be there as He was for me and as He will always be with everyone who asks."