Paging Saint Anthony!

“St Anthony, St Anthony,
Give back what don’t belong to thee” (x3)

 

A lovely old lady taught it to me after watching me frantically scrabbling around under weight machines for a quarter to half an hour. She told me her mother had taught it to her and it never failed to return lost objects.

You see, I’d lost my wedding ring at the leisure centre gym, but didn’t realise until I’d got back to where I’m staying (which is conveniently just next door).

Then came the rush back to the gym and 15-30 minutes of frantic searching: moving machines, sliding a plastic knife along underneath the cable ducting. The instructor even got the manager to check the cctv – but it had been pointing the wrong direction all morning. She even took on the unpleasant task of emptying the bin of sweaty tissues and sticky energy drink bottles. Nothing. Nada.

That’s when the old dear taught me her family charm. I thought why not? Nothing else was working and my panic was just growing. I placed my palms together in Christian Prayer and said the invocation quietly, three times. Then got back to lifting and shifting.

Less than a minute later, in walks the Leisure Centre manager and immediately glances down to where the hinge edge of the closed door had been before he walked in. He bends down, picks something up and asks:

“This it?”, while holding it out like the One Ring. I was gobstruck.

I had looked in the corner. It hadn’t been there.

I turn round and the old lady is smiling at me,

“I told you it never failed!” she said as I took her hand in mine and kissed the back of her knuckles.

I was speechless.