It didn’t take a crucible to prove that this was the one ring Patt Groves had lost 44 years ago.

In high school, the Uptown balloon reservationist worked hard to purchase her class ring and was proud of her accomplishment. In those days, she said it was common to exchange class rings with a high school sweetheart. Groves did so with her fellow graduate of Riverside High School and two days later, her boyfriend lost it. That was 1972.

Grove moved to Arizona shortly after high school. She has only returned a few times to her home state. After moving here during the “hippie days” she put down roots, marrying and having children.

Despite being upset initially, Groves said she didn’t think much of the ring for the next several decades. Then one day her friends messaged her on Facebook.

Groves is originally from De Graff, Ohio, which has its own community page. Some friends had checked it out and came across a woman’s post that said she was looking for the owner of a ring she had found in her father’s belongings. The woman’s father had no recollection of how he obtained it, and that part of the precious ring’s journey remains an uncovered chapter. The only thing he recalled that it wasn’t until the late 1970s to early 1980s that he found it in Bell Fountain, a town in her home county.

Coincidentally, the man who found it and her previous boyfriend shared the same last name, though the two were unrelated and had never met.

After confirming it was her ring — she had her initials engraved and was the only member of her class to sport those particular letters — she said she was surprised at how quickly the ring fell back into her hands.

“I got it three days later,” Groves said. “It still fits.”

She said the ring still looks like new, with only the gold looking deeper than before.

“I went to the post office and I took it home. I couldn’t even open the package,” she said. “I finally opened it and it was amazing. Forty-four years.

“It makes you feel like there’s magic again. Never had anything happen like that. I’ve heard that kind of thing happen to other people.

Now, Groves said she is trying to think of something nice to do in return for the woman who returned her fingerwear.