Woman loses both parents to COVID-19, then loses their wedding rings in Queens
ASTORIA, Queens (WABC) -- A heartbroken woman who lost both of her parents to COVID-19 exactly one month apart earlier this year is now desperately trying to find their lost wedding rings.
Beverly Tobias, 29, wore their rings on a chain as a keepsake.
Her father, 72-year-old Roberto Tobias, died on May 30 from the coronavirus. Her mother, 61-year-old Loida Tobias, passed away on June 30.
They were married for over 30 years and were inseparable. They were best friends so bound by their love and in sync with their joy that they once even gave each other the exact same anniversary card.
"My parents meant everything to me, they were my best friends, and they're gone now," Tobias said. "So those rings, they're all I have left of them."
Unfortunately, Tobias' necklace broke on November 3 while she was walking on Broadway near 34th Street in Astoria, Queens.
"I started screaming, I was crying and screaming, I can't believe this happened to me," Tobias said. "You know because this is all I have left."
She's now on a mission to find the inscribed wedding rings.
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Tobias said she visited a jewelry store/pawn shop near the location where she believes the rings were lost.
She says the owner told her a man came in to sell the rings, but he said he did not purchase them when the man's behavior raised some red flags.
He said the man was acting scared and paranoid and was looking over his shoulder the entire time.
Tobias is convinced that the man had her parents' rings because it happened on the same day and at the same location where she believes they were lost.
The rings are simple, thin and gold with an asterisk engraved on the outside and her parents' names on the inside.
Roberto and Loida didn't need much when they immigrated from the Philippines because they had each other.
"My parents were, they were poor when they first got married, there's very little value for resale," Tobias said. "I felt them with me when I had the rings."
Her pain is about more than losing those rings. It is the pain of not being able to feel them close, where they belong, against her heart.
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