In the despairing world of lost and found, 'don't worry it'll turn up' are often familiar words.
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Whether you believe it at the time is hard to say but no point stressing because things are usually distressing enough.
However we had a good news story in this department recently.
A daughter's ring, bestowed by besties a couple of years ago, went suddenly missing on a car trip to the train station.
She swore she'd worn it getting in the car and there was a lot more swearing going on by the time we got to the train station carpark. A frantic search proving ultimately futile.
The mood in the car lurched from happy, to horrified, to absolutely gutted as darling daughter got on the train sans ring.
Her grief immortalised in a tearful selfie sent later down the line.
Back home we ripped that car apart looking for that ring, and we learned a lot.
About how much rubbish can accumulate under car seats.
About how car seats can be unbolted from chassis if you go hard enough with a spanner.
About where a ring might conceivably slip in a car seat if by a million random speculations it slipped there. Which we couldn't really be sure it had because maybe it hadn't.
And yet there was a hint of a rattle when we shook that removed car seat. And it might not just have been our emotional state.
If only we'd had the conviction to slash that car seat open at the time, which was proposed. Or at least get over the cost/benefit analysis.
Alas no, and thus the search had been called off with those immortal words - "Don't worry, it'll turn up." No one believed it, but a platitude felt in order. Daughter bought a replacement ring of less value on every level shortly after and we moved on.
To the other day several years later when for some reason I was overcome with a need to clean the vehicle. Probably to earn brownie points for domestic atrocities either already committed ... or looming.
Midway through vacuuming up several years of shopping dockets - there on the car floor a glint - did my eyes deceive me? - OMG!! - could it be? the ring!!!!!
A quick photo ID to daughter confirmed the back seat miracle and the amaze-ball vibe was palpable as text messages flowed through the family circle. It HAD turned up after all. And who knew how, except maybe that car seat.
Theories suggest it might have been connected to a recent hissy fit I'd had trying to remove said car seat to fit furniture. It hadn't been pretty but there'd been a whole lot of shaking going on. What could I say now, except viva la hissy fit. It had produced easily a top five moment in a chequered history of fatherhood.
Faith had been lost with that ring, but now both were found as we celebrated the unlikely logic of lost and found; don't worry, it did turn up, and that had been the most major but least expected turn-up of all.
