Wife of Man Who Traded Wedding Band for Beer Doesn't Want Ring Back

The Canadian woman whose husband traded her wedding band for a beer 60 years ago, and whose granddaughter's effort to find the ring has gone viral, doesn't even want the ring back, she told ABC News.com.

"We've been married 60 years and have never given a thought about it. That cursed old ring was worth nothing. I couldn't care less," Coralyn Druken, 78, told ABC News.com from her home in the tiny hamlet of Wolfsen, Nova Scotia.

Her husband, John Druken, then a young soldier in the Canadian Army traded the ring for a pint of a beer during a three-day bender in the 1950s.

"I was in a tavern in Halifax and I ran a little short of money," John Druken told the National Post. "I was in the armed forces at the time and I was on a bender for about three days. I quit drinking not too long after that…. I am not proud of it, but I sold my ring for a quart of beer because, you know, at closing time that last beer looks better than all the rest."

The ring and its story had been lost to time, until Druken told the tale to his newlywed granddaughter Natalie Aalders.

Aalders hoped modern technology could reunite man and ring, and posted an ad on the online classified website kijiji.com looking for leads.

"I imagine the ring is long gone, but figured I would post this on the far off chance that someone would remember him and still have the ring, and possibly discuss how I can get it back for him while he is still around, maybe in time for Christmas," she wrote, describing the ring as a white gold band.

Thousands of people have since seen the ad, and dozens of reporters have descended on the elderly couple's home.

"I was practically attacked on my way to the grocery store," Coralyn Druken said. "I know my granddaughter means well, but I'm not sure she knew what she was doing."

And then with sigh, she added, "It's just a ring."