Decades after being lost, a high school ring from Maine that was found in Nova Scotia’s Colchester County will soon be in the hands of its grateful owner.

On Thursday, CTV News brought the story of John Ward, who was working at a gas station in the early 1990s when he found a ring in the women’s washroom in Glenholme, N.S.

The ring contains a large red stone in the middle and says “Brewer High School 1980.” It is engraved with a witch on one side and initials CAJ on the inside.

Ward had held on to the ring after the gas station was torn down in the late 1990s.

“I just kind of misplaced it. Then my girlfriend, she found it, and looked it over and said, ‘Maybe somebody would like to have that back,’” says Ward.

The story ended up on a Facebook page for the Brewer High graduating class of 1980.

After confusion, it was found the initials inside the ring were actually CAL for Cathy Leclerc, now Cathy Bradstreet who lives in Maine.

“I would only know it was mine after I saw that runner’s foot with the wing, and it had the atomic particle because I wanted to get a degree in nursing at the time, and I did,” says Bradstreet.

“When I saw the picture of that and realized that it really was my ring, I was shocked. I have travelled through Nova Scotia but I believe I did not have the ring with me at the time, I don’t believe. I had already lost it at that point.”

While Cathy Bradstreet isn’t sure how it got to Glenholme, N.S., she is grateful it ended up in John Ward’s hands.

“I'm very touched by your compassionate heart, and your girlfriend, and I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this,” Bradstreet told Ward.

Ward hopes to have the ring sent off to Bradstreet in the next few days.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Dan MacIntosh.