Ozarks Life: Allison’s long-lost high school ring

FLIPPIN, Ark. (KY3) - From the small town of Flippin, Arkansas, this is the story of Allison Medina and her message.

“Never give up,” she says with a grin.

Shortly after graduating high school in 1988, Allison went to Charleston, South Carolina, to visit a friend. She didn’t come back. Allison got a roommate and a job and met a guy.

“We were madly in love,” Allison said, ‘and my mom always warned me, ‘Don’t let anyone wear your (high school) ring because they’re not going to take care of it like you do.’ Well, I did not heed that advice.”

In 1992 the relationship was lost, and so was Allison’s high school ring. Eventually, she moved to Hilton Head without a precious part of her past.

“I figured it was in a pawn shop somewhere,” Allison said.

“People have a lot of sentimental value attached to rings,” Dr. James Murrell said.

Dr. Murrell enters our story from California. Earlier this year, he took a trip down memory lane to a place he used to call home: Charleston, South Carolina. He stopped by an apartment building where he once lived.

“Which just so happened to be the same place I lived at that same time, but we didn’t know each other,” Allison remarked.

“I thought, let me take the car and just go see what the neighborhood looked like,” Dr Murrell said. “So I drove over there and was just walking around the complex and just happened to look down noticing they had planted some bushes, shrubs, and things, and noticed something shiny on the ground, and I picked it up.”

James made a post on Facebook. “Found this ring... does anyone know Allison, a graduate of Flippin High School, class of 1988?”

“It blew up,” Allison said. “Facebook messages, text messages, Messenger on Facebook. I mean, everybody, ‘Is this your ring?’ ‘Is this you?’ I looked and saw the picture, and sure enough, it was my ring.

James cleaned it up, put it in a box, and sent it to Allison, complete with a note that read, “reunited, and it feels so good.”

“It’s been 30 years,” Allison said. “Think of Charleston. Rain, dogs, animals, kids, mowing, floods, hurricane, and it’s still there.”

“Through social media,” Allison’s niece, Clara Alford, said, “we can find things as little as this that she had lost 30 years ago.”

But here is where our story gets even better. The ring Allison’s niece was holding during our interview is her dad’s. And just get a load of this.

“He’d lost his about 25 years (ago),” Allison said. “And it was found in an old desk.”

“It’s crazy how it all happened (about) a month apart from each other and 30 years later,” Clara said.

A Flippin brother and sister both lose their Flippin class rings in the 1990s, and they were both found in 2023.

Some would say this is a Flippin miracle. But Allison has another thought.

“Our mom passed in 2007,” Allison said. “So we just kind of felt like that’s her saying, ‘Hey, I’m still watching you guys. I’m still with you guys.’ And you know she loved us, and we miss her.”

As for the man who found it, Dr. Murrell hopes this inspires others to do the little things that could make a big impact in someone else’s life.

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