FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) — A Port St. Lucie man is turning to the community for help after dealing with another heartbreaking loss just two weeks after losing his wife to cancer last month.

For Robert Calderin, 73, South Beach Park in Fort Pierce holds a special place in his heart.

It’s where he and his wife, JoAnn, who he lovingly called Joey, spent countless days together.

“Joey and I, my wife, we would come here all the time,” Calderin said. “This was our favorite part of the beach.”

On Wednesday, July 8, just two weeks after JoAnn, 69, lost her fight with cancer, Calderin returned to the beach to honor her memory. But when he got home, he realized the wedding ring she had given him years earlier had slipped off his finger.

“I felt so terrible, so distraught over that that I came out here Thursday…to look for the ring,” Calderin said fighting back tears.

The couple was married for 42 years.

“She would say, ‘We’re a duo,’” he said. “She was vivacious. She was always forgiving, never judgmental. Everybody loved Joey.”

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JoAnn died on June 24 after battling cholangiocarcinoma, a rare but aggressive cancer of the bile ducts. Calderin says the disease was already stage four by the time doctors discovered it.

“She was fine. No symptoms. Nothing. Zero,” he said. “And then one day in October, she begins scratching, head to toe.”

Calderin says the cancer was devastating, but he remembers his wife’s strength throughout her illness.

“It was a brutal, a brutal disease,” he said. “She suffered immensely, and yet didn’t complain. She was always upbeat, always positive.”

Now, Calderin is holding on to the memories they shared as he searches for the wedding ring that represents decades of love.

The silver band features a distinctive Native American design. It was a replacement ring JoAnn gave him years ago after he lost his original wedding band.

“I stupidly lost the first ring,” Calderin said. “I got into the habit of going into public restrooms, taking off my ring and washing my hands. I guess I left it behind one day.”

After sharing his story online, strangers began reaching out, offering to bring metal detectors and help search the beach.

“I was floored,” Calderin said. “I told the story asking if anybody comes across this ring, maybe a miracle is out there, and I started getting an avalanche of responses.”

While he hasn’t found the ring yet, Calderin says the kindness from strangers has given him something he needed during a difficult time.

“Yeah, I lost the ring, and I lost that memory, but you know what I found? I found that there’s good people out there, and that Jesus lives in the faith, hope, and charity of those people,” he said. “I have renewed faith in goodness.”

Calderin and two strangers he now calls friends spent hours searching the beach Wednesday. He plans to return again on Thursday, July 24, exactly one month after losing his wife, hoping the ring is still waiting somewhere in the sand.