I had a collection of little bags of gold rings -- all which I had removed the stones from eons ago and had made into designer jewelry. We had just stored these empty husks in a drawer, thinking they were pretty darned worthless. Well, they weren't. Gold is at such a high cost that these ugly old ring casings made quite a pretty penny. Hubby had a bunch of collector coins -- he'd been hiding coins away for over 50 years. Those brought a nice return also. Finally, we had some jewelry that nobody we knew would ever wear -- and that brought the best return of all.
In gathering up all the things we never looked at and didn't appreciate on any level other than to tell ourselves that someday we could sell them and make some money, I found my lovely wedding bands and the pretty rings Hubby had gifted me with through the years. Nearly everything was too small -- some way too small -- for me to wear comfortably.
So along with the sales, we had all my old rings resized to fit arthritic, fat fingers. When the rings came back I was astonished at just how lovely they were. Twenty or so years ago Mother sent me her engagement ring, my grandmother's engagement and wedding rings, and my great aunts engagement rings. Hubby had given me a modern wedding set (two rings) back in the early 80's. I had taken all these rings into a designer store and had them create me a lovely set of three wedding bands -- but then age and weight took their toll and I could no longer wear them.
This week all the rings came back re-sized and cleaned up. I'm so pleased. We had sold enough "stuff" to have a nice vacation in July -- and I have a lovely set of rings that are now big enough for me to wear for the rest of my life (we sized up instead of to fit -- everything's just a little big so swelling and meds and arthritis and weight should no longer be a problem).
The bottom ring is my grandmother's wedding band. She wore it from 1916 until her death in 1963. The middle wide band was designed because all the diamonds are very different colored. The diamond in it on the left was my mother's. The two middle diamonds belonged to my great Aunt Frances, grandmother's sister. The diamond on the right was my grandmother's. The top band was made from the diamonds in the set Hubby gave me in the 1980's. Each ring has special meaning and I will now be able to wear them with great pleasure. Our little selling spree was quite successful and a piece of my history that I cherish has been restored.
2 comments:
That's a beautiful ring! I love what you've done. I wish my MIL had done more selling off of her stuff; she would have had much more money to enjoy. Where are you going on your trip? Washington is very nice during the summer. :)
I, too, am wondering where you'll vacation. Don't keep us waiting!
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