BY DI SNEDDON
People take up new hobbies for all sorts of reasons but for Singleton’s Danielle Sommer, becoming a bell ringer at All Saints Anglican Church is a tale of luck, hope and a promise she made to God.
It all started when she decided to have a spring clean at home. She discarded plenty of items and clothes that she placed in the All Saints op shop collection bins.
Ten days later, as she was getting ready to see Dawn French perform in Newcastle, she looked for her jewellery. Three very special rings that, apart from their value, held huge sentimental worth to Danielle. Gemstones from her grandmother’s ring she had reset into a new ring was among those she could not locate.
She went to the show but can’t remember a thing from the night because her mind was obsessed with where she could possibly have left her rings.
She is a keen listener to crime podcasts and decided to adopt some of what she learnt and retraced her steps. Remembering they were in a black velvet pouch, she suddenly, realised she had placed them in a pocket of some distinct nursing scrubs that she had, in the frenzy of her spring clean, placed in the collection bin.
The next day she went to the church and spoke to the minister who took her to the main donation room. Danielle anticipated a few donation bags but was, instead, confronted with thousands of bags and they went through each one unable to locate those scrubs.
She then raced to the op shop and shared her story with the volunteers just in case they had come across the scrubs.
Hearing that many donations find their way to Newcastle, Danielle rang every op shop in Newcastle in an attempt to track down the scrubs hoping the rings would still be in the pocket.
No luck and Danielle was losing hope.
She then learnt that some of the clothes find their way to South Africa. Is this where her rings would be headed?
Resigned to the fact that they were well and truly gone, Danielle was distraught.
Sitting out the front of All Saints, she looked towards the church tower and thought about the sound of the bells she would hear from her home every Thursday night. She then made a pact with God.
“If I get my rings back I will become a bell ringer,” she affirmed.
She headed back into the op shop and this time spoke with a different volunteer whose daughter works in the health industry. This volunteer had spotted the scrubs and put them aside at the Singleton store, thinking her daughter might like them.
They searched the store, found the bag, found the scrubs and sure enough, found the black velvet pouch with the prized possession inside.
“I cannot describe how I felt, a huge relief and now I have embarked on becoming a bell ringer,” Danielle said and she is loving it.
Only a fortnight into her new hobby, Danielle joins practise every Thursday night with learners starting at 6pm for individual tuition and the rest of the band arrives at 6:30, finishing by 8pm.
Bell ringing has also opened up a new interest in local history, the story of the church and its people.
