EVERETT — More than 30 years ago, Judie Vann gave her prized gold and diamond ring to her late husband’s best friend in appreciation for the kindness he had shown her family following Raymond Vann’s death.
On Wednesday, the gestures of kindness came full circle, as the best friend’s 90-year-old mother returned the ring to Vann’s daughters at an Everett restaurant after flying in from Alaska.
Eunice Severson had searched for months through old phone books and, with the help of a friend, with high-powered Internet search engines to locate Judie Vann. Her son, Bill Lund, died in 2000, and she wanted Vann to have the ring back.
But her searches initially were futile.
In December, Severson was visiting from Ketchikan, Alaska, to get laser treatment for her eyes at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. She met Patricia Lindell at a dinner party in Everett, and Lindell offered to drive her to Seattle for her appointment.
On the way to Seattle, Severson told her the story of the ring.
"I asked her the name of the man who died, and she said, ‘Ray Vann,’" Lindell recalled. "I said, ‘Oh my God. I remember a Raedean Vann I worked with whose dad drowned many years ago on the Skagit Flats.’ "
Severson and Raedean Vann — whose married surname is Tibbetts — had worked together 17 years ago at Fluke, the maker of electronic testing tools and software headquartered in Everett. Severson called her at her Fluke office.
Severson, Lindell and Tibbetts arranged to meet during Severson’s visit this week for her eye treatment.
Wednesday morning, Severson waited at a corner table in the 112th Street Diner in south Everett. The ring sat in a small plastic bag inside a white cardboard box.
Tibbetts and her sister, Vickie Myron, marveled at the ring when they saw it. Raymond Vann drowned Dec. 14, 1969, when he fell off a boat during a windstorm on Skagit Bay north of Stanwood. After his death, Judie Vann had a jeweler forge together pieces of her and her husband’s four wedding and graduation rings into one.
A few years later, she repeatedly offered the ring to Lund until one day he accepted, Severson said. Vann told her daughters she gave away the ring in appreciation of how Lund helped her get through her husband’s death.
Severson Wednesday gave the daughters copies of two black-and-white photographs of Raymond Vann and Bill Lund in the ValuMart north of Seattle, where the two had worked. One showed Vann in his white optometrist’s shirt in front of an eyeglass display, with Lund beside him, dressed in a black suit during a break from selling appliances.
Tibbetts and Myron plan to give the ring to Judie Vann the next time they visit their mother in Southern California.
"I called her back in December and said, ‘You’re not going to believe this,’ and she didn’t," Tibbetts told Severson Wednesday. "There was stunned silence. She talked about how amazing it was and her dedication to giving it back."
"I’m sure he would have wanted her to have it," Severson said. "I’m glad it’s back where it belongs."
Reporter David Olson: 425-339-3452 or dolson@heraldnet.com.
MICHAEL O’LEARY / The Herald
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