A 93 year-old man from Iowa was just reunited with his wedding ring from his late wife after 45 years when a stranger found it in an old car engine.

Ray Schmuecker thought the diamond-studded ring was gone forever after it slipped off his finger back in 1974, just before his wife Virgee died of cancer. It came as a huge shock last month when Will Frye found the ring in the engine of the 1972 Oldsmobile he bought from Ray.

Will purchased the vehicle from Ray after seeing his ad in the local paper. He was working on the car on December 30 when the ring fill out of the engine into a pile of grease. He immediately called Ray to ask if the ring was his, and the elderly man’s daughter Ann Cabana confirmed that it was indeed her dad’s.

Ray bought the car in 1972, right after Virgee was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“My wife got cancer and that’s when everything kind of fell a part,” Ray said, adding that he bought the car because he wanted to have a vehicle that would give his wife a smooth ride as he brought her to and from chemotherapy treatments.

“Had a lot of good times and a lot of bad times in the old car,” he said.

Ray does not know how the ring could have ended up in the engine, although he does remember helping a friend who had car trouble around the time he lost it. Once he lost the ring, his wife went out the next day to buy him a replacement.

“[My wife] was kind of broken about me losing it, so she [went] right into the town and [came] home with another wedding ring with several diamonds in it exactly like the one I lost,” Ray said. Virgee tragically died soon afterwards.

Ray concluded by saying that he is happy to have both the ring and the memories that it invokes back.