Paris Junior College softball team finds lost engagement ring

A couple who had lost their engagement ring in a tornado received help from a local softball team this week.

Dakota Hudson and Lauren Patterson, who live in Lamar County, Texas, took shelter in their bathroom when a tornado was about to hit their house on Friday night. They managed to survive, but their house — along with other houses in their neighborhood — was destroyed.

While the two were picking through the debris, Hudson realized the engagement ring he’d bought to surprise Patterson was missing.

“Needle in a haystack doesn’t come close to what we were looking for,” Hudson told NBCDFW.

When the softball team at Paris Junior College, which is located about a 20-minute drive away, heard of the missing ring, the players headed over on Tuesday to help Hudson and Patterson look for it.

“I basically made my mind up. I was going to find the ring,” said outfielder Katie Rainey, the player who found the jewelry after a few hours of searching.

For more context, this is where it was! Found the possible in impossible!! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/hjcHxbwOjl

— Paris JC Softball (@PJCSoftball) November 8, 2022

Hudson decided there was no better time to actually propose than when the ring was found — and Patterson said yes.