British woman loses treasured ring in Kelowna

KELOWNA – A British woman visting the Okanagan for Christmas needs help finding a ring her grandfather gave her grandmother more than 50 years ago.

While in Vernon visiting family, Leah Kirkman from Sleaford, England, made an overnight trip to Kelowna where she stayed with friends on Okaview Road in the Upper Mission. When she got back to Vernon on Christmas Eve, a suitcase was missing.

“We got distracted and left it outside (the vehicle),” she says. “We’re not sure if maybe it got hung up and dragged or what.”

The suitcase, a black Roxy carry-on with pink flowers, contained clothes and other things Kirkman needs for her trip, but a gold ring her grandfather gave her grandmother in the 1950s was in there too.

“It was when they emigrated from the Netherlands, I think it was a Christmas gift he got for her when they came over,” she says.

Her grandmother, Antje Bruyel, gave Kirkman the ring when she was just a teenager. She’s had it with her ever since and breaks into tears describing it the thin gold band with black stone in the shape of a heart.

To make things worse, Kirkman also lost a necklace her parents gave her 15 years ago when she moved overseas. It, too, was a Christmas gift.

“Those two things mean a lot to me,” she says. “Neither are high-value but I’m desperate to get them back.”

If you find the ring or pendant, email leahmkirkman@gmail.com or leave them at the Kelowna RCMP detachment.

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