HOUSTON – Two days after losing a family heirloom on a United flight, a Houston woman is beyond ecstatic to be reunited with the treasured piece of jewelry.
Nikki Neel and her dog, Baby Yaba, returned home from Colorado and sat in seat 7F on United Airlines flight 489.
She always wears her great grandmother’s wedding ring on her thumb.
Neel even has pictures of herself wearing it in a selfie she took with the person next to her.
"I don’t know if just because I was just involved in the conversation, having the dog extra as travel, it just came off. I haven’t slept in a couple of days because I’m pretty devastated about it, I kind of felt like I let my grandmother down,” she said.
She said her great grandmother, Ana, picked cotton for a living and her family didn’t have much money. Neel said her great grandfather couldn’t afford a wedding ring and bought her one many years later after they had their first grandchild, Neel’s dad.
“It’s beautiful,” explained Neel, who said the ring is yellow-white gold with sunflowers and crosses on it.
Neel’s grandmother, Pauline, was her best friend and she said after she passed away in 2002, that’s when the ring was given to her.
"It's heartbreaking, that it's missing. I just hope that it comes back,” Neel said. "Sad, pretty sad. I kinda feel like I've let my grandmother down because it took so long to get it, so its just kind of sad."
On Monday night, Neel received good news. A United Airlines manager found the ring in lost and found and they were going to deliver it to her Monday night.