When my mother turned sixteen, Grandma Goldie and Grandpa Irving had a ring made for her to celebrate the occasion. The ring was made of platinum with a large onyx stone and a small diamond set in the middle. Mom wore that ring until her death in 1976. At that time I put the ring in the safety deposit box, along with her wedding ring and the jewelry Grandma Goldie had left in my mother’s care when she died in 1970.
Although my Grandpa Irving had left Grandma Goldie for another woman, he was generous with his gifts to Grandma. He gave her a diamond watch, a diamond bracelet, and a large diamond pin with many small diamonds; he also gave her a beautiful diamond engagement ring with a large square cut stone in the center, complemented by two small square diamonds on each side.
When Grandma moved back to Davis in 1954, she wore all of her diamonds every day. She didn’t have Grandpa any more, but I think those diamonds gave her a feeling of warmth and kept her connection to Grandpa alive. The song Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend might have been a good theme song for Grandma.
On my sixteenth birthday Grandma Goldie presented me with my second ring. She took sixteen chip diamonds from her pin and had them set in a gold ring for me. I wore that ring until our oldest daughter Kelly turned sixteen; then I passed it on to her. Kelly had that ring for several years until someone stole it from her. At that time I presented Kelly with my mother’s wedding ring, which was similar to the ring she had gotten on her sixteenth birthday. I am happy to say Kelly still has and treasures that ring.
When I got married, David and I decided to have wedding rings made by a jeweler in San Francisco. Grandma Goldie took the remaining seven chip diamonds from her pin and gave them to me to add to my wedding band. David and I got identical gold bands, but all the chip diamonds ended up in my ring. I have always been sorry that we didn’t split them up between the two rings. I’m sure that would have been fine with Grandma, as she loved David like a grandson.
Grandma Goldie always told me she was giving my brother Michael her own engagement ring, as he was her first grandchild. When Michael got the ring, after both Grandma and Mom died, he got into his car, drove over to my house and handed me the ring. What a wonderful brother!
On our daughter Kate’s sixteenth birthday, I gave her my mother’s sixteenth birthday ring. That ring was in Kate’s jewelry box when our house burned down in 1996. Remarkably, we retrieved it from the ashes after the fire, and she has it to this day.
My mother always told me to never take my rings off. She said removing them to clean or whatever was a good way to lose them. I always followed mother’s good advice until we were heading on our camping trip in 1996. Grandma Goldie’s engagement ring, which my brother had given me, was loose on my finger and I was afraid of losing it on the trip. So I left it behind in my jewelry box.
Twenty-four short hours later our house burned down. I remember thinking at the time: “My mother was right! I should have secured that ring to my finger and taken it with me.”
It took us eight hours to drive to Davis after we heard about the fire. When we arrived home our son Bill, who came from San Francisco to survey the damage, walked up to the RV and pulled his key ring out of his pocket. Dangling from his key ring was a soot-covered ring that he had miraculously spotted in the ashes.
“Is this anything of value?” Bill asked.
Needless to say my answer was a resounding, “Yes!” It was Grandma’s diamond engagement ring. It remains today as one of my greatest treasures because it came from my loving grandmother.
Unfortunately, Grandma’s diamond watch and diamond bracelet disappeared with the fire. We had taken them out of the safety deposit box to have them appraised for our insurance policy at just the wrong time. I am sure that only Grandma in Heaven knows where they ended up; someday, when we are reunited, she can tell me what happened to them. I don’t grieve over the loss of the bracelet and watch because I will always have Grandma’s love in my heart and the rings on my fingers; they bring me warmth and the loving memory of my Grandma every day of my life.
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