Love Worn Stones

I wear the diamonds that were once in the ring of my husband’s grandmother every day.   Sadly the state of her ring was so poor that I could not wear the ring itself as my engagement ring.   It was fragile and frail from years of wear and enjoyment.

We took her ring and had the gorgeous “nearly perfect, Old European cut” stones removed and placed into a setting quite different than her art deco design of the early 1900’s .   My preference would to been to keep her gorgeous stones and ring together but that could never be.   We did the next best thing.

Sometimes I’ll catch the glint of the larger stone and wonder. 

I wonder about this woman’s life.  I wonder what adventures she’d had while wearing these stones…where she went with them.   History she’d lived while wearing them. 

Did my husband sit as a little boy and play with the ring on her finger as my grandchildren had done with mine?   I like to think of him, little boy chubby legs tucked up in her lap talking to her while he twirled the ring on her finger watching those stones catch the light.

I wonder about the day she received the ring with these stones from her love.  Did he stutter and stammer a proposal, did she blush?  Was she surprised?  Did she love him as I love her grandson?  Was their wedding big or small, lavish or more personal?

I wonder what her thoughts were as she looked down at that ring and those stones in moments of sadness or happiness, contemplative moments or happy, silly moments. 

These diamonds have seen a lot of life.   I like to think they’ve seen a good bit of the good in people and life.  I like to think that the woman that had them before me knew grand love.  I hope she did. 

I wear them and see the photos of her that my husband has and smile to myself knowing that one day, although we have no children together, the granddaughter we share will wear these stones.  I plan to make sure she knows its history and all the things these stones have seen through the generations.  Laughter, tears.  Hard times, great times.  Adventure and mundane things.  Bread dough and garden soil, dirty diapers and happy tears of laughter.

I like to think that one day our granddaughter will look down and catch a glint from the stones and think of a woman she never met, who wore these diamonds with love and pride.   That she’ll think of me and the adventure that is my life, and wonder at the thoughts I think as I peer down at them.

The thought that these diamonds will continually be worn by women very much loved pleases me very much.  I hope it does my husband’s grandmother too.