Long-lost ring en route home from Virginia
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Washington Bureau
McLEAN, Va. — When young Nora Stewart lost her Kamehameha class ring in the surf at Waikiki in the 1930s, she was sure it was gone forever.
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But because of another woman's curiosity, and some extraordinary luck, the ring will soon be back on Stewart's finger again.
Left: Nora Stewart, seen in her class photo, lost her Kamehameha Girls School class ring in the Waikiki surf in the 1930s.
"It's a miracle, really. I don't think she totally believes it yet," said Stewart's daughter, Amata Coleman Radewagen.
Time, distance and nostalgia can blur even the best memories, and it is impossible to know the exact chain of events. But the ring somehow made its way from Waikiki to a jewelry box in Vienna, Va.
Laura Leigh was going through the belongings of her deceased aunt when she discovered the distinctive ring with an insignia from Kamehameha Girls School and Stewart's name engraved. She wondered whether Stewart was a long-lost friend or relative of her aunt, Katherine Baker, but her uncle had never heard of Stewart and did not know the origin of the ring.
Her aunt and uncle took a vacation to Hawai'i in 1996, and Leigh says she thinks her aunt must have found the ring on the beach and put it aside.
"We all lose something at some point in our lives," Leigh said. "Sometimes, it's something silly, but it feels good when it comes back to you. I felt like I needed to find out who this ring belonged to."
Leigh looked up Kamehameha Schools on the Internet and, after a few e-mail exchanges with school administrators, learned Nora Stewart had graduated in 1938. Stewart married Peter Tali Coleman, a governor of American Samoa and a leading figure in the territories. She is now a widow living in Niu Valley but could not be reached for comment yesterday.
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It turned out that her daughter, Radewagen, lived near Leigh. After several months of telephone conversations and juggling schedules, Leigh met Radewagen at a restaurant here yesterday to give her the ring.
Amata Coleman Radewagen, right, and Laura Leigh inspect the class ring of Nora Stewart, Radewagen's mother. Leigh says she thinks her aunt, now deceased, found the ring on the beach.
Radewagen placed a shell lei around Leigh's neck and the two women hugged like old friends with a secret. They shared photographs of Leigh's aunt and Radewagen's mother — happy and beautiful in younger days — and marveled at how the world can sometimes seem so small and magical. "My aunt would have been very happy today to see this," Leigh said.
Radewagen, who lives in Alexandria, Va., and works for House Republicans and serves on the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, said she plans to return to Hawai'i around July 4 to give the ring back to her mother, who is now 83.
"My mom had written the ring off," Radewagen said.
Leigh, who lives in Odessa, Del., with her family and is developing an Internet gift business, said it was somewhat difficult to see the ring go. "I just wish I could see her mother's face," she said.
