I took both objects to the Hatteras Island museum, and a kind volunteer named Carol searched old records for an hour. She found a wedding announcement from 1961 in a local paper. “Margaret Ellison and Jack Parrish, married at the lighthouse.” She also found a recent obituary. Jack Parrish had passed away the previous winter, and he was survived by his wife, Margaret, now eighty-six, living in a care home in Manteo.

I drove to Manteo that afternoon. A nurse led me to a sunny room, where a small, silver-haired woman sat with a blanket on her knees. “Mrs. Parrish?” I said softly. “I am sorry to bother you. I think I found something that belongs to you.” I held out the ring, and she looked at it for a long time. Then she looked at the tin box.