An unexpected hero: Edman to the rescue!

A selfless petrol attendant named Edman Kamanga helped a literal damsel in distress after she lost her wedding ring.

On just another ordinary Friday afternoon Leigh Todd, a teacher at Panorama Primary School, realised in a ‘heart dropped into her stomach’-moment that she wasn’t wearing her wedding ring.

“Being a teacher by nature I am extremely routined in everything I do. When I got back home on Friday afternoon I went to wash my hands, as I went to take off both my rings I realised I only had one ring on – my heart dropped and I went into a flat panic,” exclaimed Leigh.

She explained that while the ring surely has monetary value – for her the sentimental value of the ring caused her to go into a flat-out panic to find it. You see, she waited 11 years for her husband to propose and then one month before their 10th wedding anniversary she loses her ring. This was a living nightmare.

“I messaged my teacher’s group and frantically asked if anyone was still at school, and if they could please look in the bathroom if they had seen my ring,” Leigh elaborated, “No one was at school. Thankfully another teacher who lived close by the school went back to look for my ring, but didn’t find it.”

One question kept repeating in her mind, “How could I be wearing one ring and not the other?” Leigh couldn’t make sense of it.

“I looked in the car, every part of the house, every cupboard, washing pile, washing machine; you name it. I couldn’t find it,” Leigh added.

“At this point, I had to tell my husband, he knew better than to grill me; he could see I was sick to my stomach about the situation. I could not sleep. I went back to school on Saturday morning, where I screened the floors, the bathroom, the classrooms I teach in, my office, outside the school, where I park my car, and still nothing. I just sobbed!”

On Sunday, in pure desperation to find her wedding ring Leigh did something she never expected to do in her entire life. She put plastic bags over her hands and went through the garbage bins, and then the big black bins outside.

“I went as far as [still with plastic bags over my hands] sifting through the dog poo … I was that desperate!” exclaimed Leigh in horror.

“Still nothing.”

One of Leigh’s friends told her to check the security camera footage in the school’s boardroom as that’s the first place she goes to when arriving at the school.

“She said ‘you speak with your hands, so when you’re in the camera’s shot to zoom in, if the ring is not on your finger, at least then you have one less place to look [that being school]’. This was a process of elimination.”

Leigh looked through the camera footage and lo and behold – there she was with no ring on her finger!

So where could it be?

“I had to backtrack my every move. Go over my routine. There I am lying in bed on Sunday night backtracking … and it hits me and my stomach goes into knots,” she elaborated, “I know exactly what’s happened and I praying that I’m wrong but I just knew this was it.”

Leigh’s morning routine goes as follows: She wakes up, showers and gets dressed, brushes her teeth, puts her watch and rings on, grabs her basket, and gets in the car. In the car, she takes off her rings and put them in her lap while she puts cream on her hands, afterward her rings go back on and she stops at the Sasol Service Station, grabs a cappuccino, and heads to school.

“That’s the routine … except Friday morning while putting on the one ring, I must have gotten distracted and put my other small ring on my wedding finger instead, and left my wedding ring on my lap so when I jumped out the car – the ring did too!” exclaimed Leigh.

Her thoughts: “Oh my word! My ring is on the floor, someone’s seen it and taken it.”

On Monday morning Leigh got into my car, raced to the Sasol, got out of the car, and started pacing the courtyard, looking at the ground and then pacing the parking spaces.

“[At this stage] my eyes were welling up all over again as I was not seeing it. The one attendant came to me and said ‘are you ok, what are you looking for?’ Shame he was concerned, I’m usually there all cheerful every morning except this particular morning,” explained Leigh.

She then told the attendant that she was looking for her wedding ring, ‘that I think I lost here on Friday’.

He said as he pointed to the attendants ‘Go and ask them if they have seen it, they were working here on that morning’. Leigh walked over to them with tears rolling down her face and asked, “Has anyone found a ring, my wedding ring?”

“… I found it,” Edman Kamanga said as he was walking to the group Leigh was standing with.

“I jumped or leaped into his arms and hugged him and must’ve said thank you 10 times! The guys were laughing and you could feel the joy we all felt; that contagious happiness. I don’t quite know how to explain it!” exclaimed Leigh

The attendant said he has the ring at his home, as he didn’t want to walk around with it, ‘I’m going home now as I’m finishing my shift but I’ll be back here at 18:00’.

“The relief was visible on my face. I must’ve hugged him three more times,” said Leigh. She ran off and echoed her gratitude to Edman and assured him she will be back that afternoon with a reward.

“At 18:00 I get to the station and I wait with another nice attendant and he’s talking to me while we wait for Edman to get into his uniform. He said to me: ‘When he said he found it, I told my co-workers to watch how your face has just changed, the relief brightened your face and we were all so happy for you. He’s a good man [speaking about Edman], had it been anyone else that did not work here find that ring first, it would be gone. You are very lucky’.”

When Edman came out of the changing room, Leigh hugged him again and said with a massive grin, “do you have anything for me?” He replied, “Yes” laughing and smiling. Cheekily Leigh said, “how do you give a lady a ring?” Edman got on one knee and said: “would you like your ring back?”

He placed the ring on her finger and she said yes!

“Edman, you have restored my faith in humanity, thank you for your honesty and kindness, I appreciate you! I was so happy and over the moon, I was just so grateful to this man, and I want everyone to know that there are still wonderful human beings in our community, I just felt like everyone needs to put a face to a story of hope,” concluded Leigh.