Grandma's Diamond

I am very lucky that this diamond seems to have some attraction to me.

When my grandmother got re-married at 80-something, her new husband bought her a large diamond ring. "We can't take it with us," he said, "So let's splurge!". He had a nice portrait done of her with the ring prominently displayed.

I was not able to attend her funeral for complicated reasons, and her stuff sort of remained in her house, as my aunt still lived there. When my aunt died, I was there for the funeral, but my Dad had to sort out all the stuff. He had some boxes of stuff for me, that he kept until I could come sort through it.

One thing he had kept was her cloth purse - I opened it up, and next to her comb and hanky was that ring - apparently they had had her wearing the purse for the viewing at the funeral, and taken off the ring before burial.

I tried it on - it was a perfect fit. So I wore it.

Some years later I discovered the stone had fallen off at work - I was distraught, how could I lose it? I retraced my steps of the day, and did remember a faint klonk at one point - and there it was, rolled under the fire extinguisher. I had a jeweler put it back on.

A few weeks ago I was trying to put on a mattress cover and tugging and pulling, I remember the ring getting caught in the matting, but I ignored it. I was all over the place - rode the subway, walked outside, etc. etc. - before I discovered the stone again gone.

I patted down the mattress multiple times, searched ever corner of the room, I even emptied the vacuum bag in case I had vacuumed it up by mistake. No luck.

I was seriously sad for a day - how could I be so careless with Grandma's ring? But life goes on.

Yesterday I put on my black, slinky jacket, and after all sorts of meetings started to teach. I had just started the introduction and shoved my hands deep into the pockets of the jacket. There was something hard there - I pulled it out, and lo and behold: the diamond!

I couldn't really stop, and I didn't want to lose it again, so as I spoke I took out my wallet and put the diamond in the change pocket.

I'm so happy to have it back - I hope that I can find a jeweler to put it back with some kind of cement that holds better. And I vow to take it off when I do work with my hands.