Wedding Ring
Thu., June 20, 04:28 AM
Wedding Ring
Many people – my mother included – buy jewelry as an investment and, considering some of the stock market scams in recent months, they may be right. I have to admit that real gold does have a genuine beauty all its own. However, most of my jewelry has more sentimental than monetary value, and I can’t see myself ever selling any of those pieces.
Consider my mother’s wedding ring. An orthodox Jewish marriage ceremony must include a ring, but there are restrictions on the kind of ring that may be used. The metal doesn’t matter, but there may be no holes or stones in it (because that could mask its true value). My father was told also that it must be paid for at the time of the marriage.
So my parents bought an inexpensive little ring for the ceremony – I think they got it at the five and dime. Later my father bought my mother a narrow gold band with nine tiny channel-set diamonds and their initials carved inside. (Daddy used to call them chips, but those tiny stones are full cut diamonds.) That’s the ring we remember her wearing all the time, throughout our childhood. (She didn’t have an engagement ring. She told Daddy she didn’t want one; he bought her a watch when they became engaged.)
Thirty years or so later, my mother chose a fancier wedding ring – white gold with larger diamonds. She wore the old one under it, like an afterthought. Neither my sister nor I was particularly fond of the newer ring; we thought it might be worthwhile to have the diamonds reset. After Mother’s death I kept the ring with the little diamonds and gave the newer one to my (then) sister-in-law. My objective was to keep peace in the family; she wanted that ring more than I cared about giving it up.
I put Mother’s ring – worn thin in the shank and far too large for me – on my left hand under my wedding band, which acted as a guard. But I was really afraid I would lose it, until my daughter had a jeweler gold-weld the narrow one to my wider wedding band, forming a unique piece that is worth far more – to me at least – than either of them separately.
A wide gold wedding band – thirty-five years ago it cost …about $50.
A narrow wedding ring with nine small diamonds – 65 years ago it cost …maybe $200.
Gold-welding to join the two …$12.
A permanent symbol of love through the generations …PRICELESS!
