BRANFORD, Conn. (AP) –

Stewart Petrie, 82, said he was clamming off Indian Neck in July of 2003 when his wedding ring slipped off his finger. Tuesday, while clamming in the same spot, he found an encrusted, copper-toned ring mixed in with his clams.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if it was your ring?” his wife, Mary, asked.

As she scrubbed it with jewelry cleaner, the inscription put there almost 38 years ago began to come clear: MPS to SJP 9-10-67.” Her husband’s eyes began to tear, she said.

“It was an absolutely stupendous feeling,” Stewart Petrie said.

The couple married after Stewart Petrie, a former doctor, and his wife, a former nurse, met at Griffin Hospital in Derby, where they both worked. Mary Petrie bought him a new ring for Christmas, but it didn’t replace the original. The Petries eventually plan to have jeweler restore the ring. But in the meantime, it isn’t leaving his finger.

“I treasure that ring,” he said.