Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 28, 1994 TAG: 9502160003
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Yes, he washed it first.
Actually, what Nat Kershaw gave her was one of three diamond rings that Philbin had inadvertently flushed down a toilet at her son's Lynchburg home.
The three rings were all of great sentimental value, but the last ring, given to Philbin by a favorite great-aunt, had been in the family more than 100 years.
Kershaw, 48, a Lynchburg Roto-Rooter franchise owner, rescued the Philbin family's holiday with little more than a suction hose and pure instinct, though he tells it differently:
"The bottom line is, we were just lucky."
The ordeal started Friday morning when Carol Philbin was getting dressed in her son's bathroom. Brian Philbin said she came into the hallway crying because she had taken her rings off and accidentally knocked them into the toilet while it was flushing.
The Philbins tried to retrieve the rings, but with no success. Brian's wife, Myra, suggested they call the Roto-Rooter man, but no one else thought it would do any good.
Kershaw made no guarantees, but about 3 p.m. he unrolled the hose from his truck and began draining the septic tank - slowly. Going too fast might suck the rings into the hose, if they were in the tank at all.
After three hours, Kershaw found two of the rings at the bottom of the tank. But the third, the real gem of the trio, wasn't there.
Brian Philbin said his mother gave it up for lost. "We were two-thirds happy and lucky to get that," he said.
Christmas wasn't ruined, he said, but losing the heirloom certainly cast a pall over it.
Kershaw, however, wouldn't give up.
"If the two rings made it into the [septic] tank," he said, "then so did the third one, so it had to be in the [tank on the] truck."
Saturday morning, Christmas Eve, Kershaw took his truck to the waste-treatment plant to clean it out and see what he could find.
"I had the ring in my hand within 10 minutes," he said. But he waited until that night to put the crowning touch on his good deed.
About 8:30 p.m., as the Philbins were settling down around the tree, Kershaw pulled into the driveway. Brian Philbin said he knew what was up, but he kept quiet so Kershaw could have the moment.
Kershaw said he put his arm around Carol Philbin, pulled out the ring and said, "Merry Christmas."
"That was Christmas, right there," he said. "That was Christmas."
by CNB