Another Win for St. Anthony

I'm not Catholic but I believe in the powers of St. Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of lost objects.

Here's our first experience with him, when he found a cell phone belonging to my the hospitalized late mother in law.

We were so afraid it had ended up (according to the Find My Phone iPhone feature and also subsequently talking to hospital staff) in a garbage bin behind the facility where hazardous medical waste was taken for special disposal.

When we found it, I told my mother in law (who was Catholic) that we had appealed to St. Anthony and she told me something I didn't know - she was named after him.

Since then, I've called on the saint a couple of other times.  I try not to engage St. Anthony in trivial "I can't find it" missions but without his help, our Monday experience may not have ended as well as it did.

Some background, first.  I've worn a night guard (I grind my teeth) for nearly 25 years.  I've worn one custom made by my dentist, but I now am on a plan that doesn't cover them. My current dentist (my dentist of many years retired last year) charges about $600 for one. 

Lat month my dentist, to diagnose tooth pain in a back tooth, asked me to buy a store bought guard and see if it helped. The store bought guard (which you fit yourself) cost about $20.  The toothache disappeared overnight.

So, it seemed my custom guard no longer fit right, and I started to use the store bought guard.

Sunday morning, I took out my night guard when I woke up, took it to the bathroom as usual, cleaned it, and left it on the sink.

Sunday night, I went  to get the guard.  It was gone.

I looked on the floor. Not there.  I thought, maybe I left it on my bedside table but it wasn't there either.  Spouse looked under the bed with a flashlight.  We could not find it.

The next day, I would have to buy another store bought guard and fit it.  So, I appealed to St. Anthony.

Monday afternoon, spouse suddenly had a thought.  He acted on it while I was working, and soon found the guard.

He knocked on my office door and handed me the guard.  It was ice cold.

He had found it outside the house, sitting on top of the snow covering our front lawn.

How it got there is a long story.  And if it had snowed overnight, we may never have found it.  Outside would have been the last place we would have looked.  I don't think that idea entered spouse's mind randomly.

Thank you again, St. Anthony!

Has this saint ever found something for you?