Grandma’s Ring

Published

8 years ago

January 5, 2016

Hola Chicas,

So I keep a gaggle of stackable gold bands on deck. Some have pave diamonds, some have carvings, some are white gold, some yellow and others rose… and while a few of them carry a bit of sentimental value, they don’t compare to the pricelessness of my current situation. ‘Cause this right here? This was Grandma Maxine’s wedding ring.

Read On!>>>

Grandpa liked it so he put a ring on it way back in nineteen hundred and forty-six, but we’re not sure if it was THE ring that she was still wearing 70 years later… it was something like it, tho.

Unfortunately, the ring was all but destroyed last summer when it had to be cut from her massively swollen hand. Tossing it felt wrong, so I placed the heavily damaged ring in my mom’s jewelry box and apparently, we all forgot the incident. From then on, she only wore one, adjustable ring on her right hand.

Fast forward to the morning of her funeral, Dec 23rd. I can’t remember how it came to me, but I remember jumping up and wildly rummaging through Momma’s jewelry box (which has like 8 drawers) and there it lay– now oval shaped, the original carvings ruined by deep, ugly grooves from the wire cutters. But it was Gma’s. It was TREASURE! So I placed it on my index finger and rocked it, ‘broken’ and all, as Gia called it. I remember crying, happy tho, because it felt like she’d somehow left me a Christmas gift! How had I forgotten about this?!

Despite the exposed, jagged edges catching on everything from my knit scarf to my hurr, I was determined to wear the ring. Sometimes my flesh would get caught between the broken gold, but I didn’t care, I’d just gently free myself and go about my business. My dad wisely suggested that I take it to a jeweler before it drew blood. So I picked the only one I knew with a workbench on site, ’cause I wasn’t leaving it anywhere– I was fearful that they’d tell me they’d fix it and just give me a look-a-like, lol.

The jeweler thought it was a Cartier piece because of the original carvings, but he said due to the age (old AF), it was clearly the ring style Cartier based its new line off of! The vintage piece would take some work but they were sure they could at least make it whole again (in just 2 hours). I told them I didn’t care about the restoration of the original pattern or the grooves so much, because they tell a story. In the end, I paid about as much out of pocket as the gold was worth (although I told them to write ‘priceless’ where ‘the value of ring’ was requested on the paperwork). Workbench dude could tell it meant a lot to me and he managed to repair it without adding any gold to the ring (luckily my fingers are as skinny as Gma’s! #size4)- he even restored the pattern! And now, this thing ain’t ever coming off. #FavoriteThing

Later Gators,
Nik

p.s. My solitaire is rose gold and I wear it with what was previously my favorite stackable, a 2mm rose gold band from Laris’ Etsy shop. I bought one for my sister, Syl, too– it’ll be her wedding band! They aren’t hand crafted or anything, but it looks quite vintage and the rose gold is both romantic and timeless.

Do you like skinny bands? Do you stack rings?

Do you have a ring or piece of jewelry that you consider an heirloom?

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