When Chicago woman's diamond ring fell in the Charles River, Cambridge Fire Department dive team came to the rescue

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Hopefully you've never experienced the heart-stopping feeling of losing something meaningful and expensive, but if you have, you'll sympathize with a Chicago couple.

Lynn Andrews and her husband, Ninos, were in Boston over the 4th of July weekend, and the enduring symbol of their love took a dive. Luckily, so did some first responders.

Their Sunday afternoon adventure ended with the recovery of Lynn's enormous diamond ring.

"I did not think we were ever going to see it again," Lynn said.

Lynn and Ninos were on board their friend's boat, Rebecca Rose, docked at the Charlesgate Yacht Club, to enjoy the big fireworks show the following day, but trouble began when Lynn took her rings off to slather on some sunscreen.

"And she put her rings in my pocket, which I said was not a good idea," Ninos said.

"I said please hold them for me," Lynn said.

It was fine, until Ninos got hot and pulled that shirt off on the dock.

"I said a bad word, and then took a deep breath, and I said 'Everything's going to be fine. We're going to figure this out,'" he said.

That's because two of the rings stayed on the dock, but the big diamond plunked into the Charles River.

"The lady who runs the marina came over, and said 'Drop a weight on a string, and memorize where you lost it,'" Ninos said.

"To mark it," Lynn said.

As luck would have it, the Cambridge Fire Department's dive team keeps their boat at the marina, and divers Jeremy Marrache and Eric Moore had some new gear they wanted to try.

So when their boss gave the project his blessing, in they went.

"Truly within a minute, Jeremy comes up with it, screams 'I've got it! I've got it!' and blew me a kiss, and I blew him a kiss," Lynn said.

It was sitting on the murky river bottom, a dozen or so feet down.

"They all had wives, and they all knew how important this was, and how sentimental it was to us," Lynn said.

The couple doesn't want to say how much the ring is worth, but the symbol of their love is priceless to them, and so is the effort of the firefighters who literally dove in to help.

"We definitely have a story four our kids one day, that's for sure, when we pass this ring down," Lynn said.

Lynn said, no matter what she does going forward, the ring stays on.