A romantic beach proposal in Southampton, Ont., north of Saugeen Shores, took an unexpected turn this week when a Toronto couple lost their engagement ring in the sand. Sam Bagel Lerner proposed to his girlfriend, Elyanna Remer, at Chantry Beach on Monday. But moments after she said yes, the couple realized the ring was missing. “I got up, I went to hug her, and her arm brushed up against my arm and it was knocked to the ground,” Bagel Lerner said. “And so I looked down, and then all of a sudden, the ring was not in its case.” Remer said she couldn’t believe what happened. “My first thought was definitely shock,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘No way this just happened.’” The couple initially searched the area themselves, hoping the ring was still close by. “We were just looking around and we didn’t see it,” Remer said. “And then a little bit of panic started to rise.” That’s when a local beachgoer stepped in. Jennifer Bedard had been at the beach with her children and witnessed both the proposal and the frantic search that followed. She posted on Facebook, asking local beachcombers with metal detectors to help. “There was no point in time where I felt like it was lost forever,” Bedard said. “I knew that it would turn up.” Before long, people began arriving with their equipment. Among those joining the search was Southampton resident Saoirse Johnson, who brought along her brother’s decades-old metal detector. “So, at first I was just sweeping wherever people told me to sweep,” Johnson said. “I didn’t really know what I was doing exactly.” The search continued for more than an hour as darkness began to fall. But the group kept looking, and eventually, they heard the beeping sound they were hoping for. Elyanna’s mother, Sandy Remer, said the discovery was a true team effort. “[Saoirse’s] metal detector went off. I used a sieve, I found it, but it was not a one-person job. This was a community coming together,” Remer recalled. For Elyanna, finding the ring brought an emotional end to an already unforgettable proposal. “Honestly, I was sobbing when we found the ring,” she said. “We’re so eternally grateful for all the support and the wishes and people just coming down to help us. We’re just complete strangers.” The couple said they’re planning to get married next summer and they expect to return to the beach again. But before then, Lerner said they’re taking one precaution. “We’ll make sure to keep the ring secure. We’re getting it resized.”
