GOODYEAR, AZ — After 43 years of marriage, a wedding ring becomes a part of you. At least, that’s how Bradley Myers feels. His wife Robin wasn't just the love of his life, she was the only one.
“She was a go-getter, she just never stopped,” he said.
He’s missed her every day since January 31, the day she passed away from COVID-19 at Abrazo West in Goodyear.
“It’s terrible,” Myers added. “She had been here for 43 years with me and it’s not something easy to go with.”
Myers says his wife started to deteriorate a week prior. Soon, he found she couldn't talk, or move.
Myers says according to doctors who treated her, Robin suffered multiple strokes while battling the virus.
Myers and his daughters were only able to see her twice, before she passed.
"I did notice on the second day when we went to see her, her rings and all her stuff we’re all gone," he said. "They had put some kind of little plastic ring on her ring finger. I didn’t know what that was. I just assumed they put her stuff with the rest of her stuff.”
After Robin passed, Myers was told her body, along with all her personal effects, would be sent to the funeral home to start the burial process.
Last week, he collected a large bag. In it, were his wife's clothes, purse, credit cards, even the cash she had on her. Her wedding band, engagement ring, and a third ring were missing.
"She never takes them off, even at night," added Myers. "I've never seen them off of her except for when she would clean them every now and then."
Myers was sure she was wearing them when she was admitted. He's unsure though what happened from that point forward.
“What did you guys do with it?" he asked. "It’s supposed to have been put in a baggie and put with her clothes and it wasn’t there. It wasn’t there. It wasn’t at the funeral home. It wasn’t anywhere.”
Myers says he designed the engagement ring himself and had a custom wedding band made to fit around the heart-shaped diamond perfectly. He planned to bury his wife wearing the symbol of their love she always kept close.
“Just no one really had anything to say," added Myers. "[Abrazo Health] didn’t seem to be too concerned about it. They just said, 'well, we don’t know where they are.'”
Myers and his family filed a report with Goodyear police Tuesday, but aren't confident the rings will turn up.
“Make sure you don’t leave stuff with them," warns Myers. "You’re not guaranteed to get it back."
ABC15 reached out to Abrazo Health officials Tuesday for comment on the incident.
"Any reports of misplaced personal items are investigated by the hospital. The hospital tries to work with the patient or family to find a resolution. If the patient chooses to file a report after the hospital tries to resolve the issue, then it becomes a police matter," said Keith Jones, a spokesperson for Abrazo Health.
