About a month ago our daughter-in-law called to tell me something that was difficult, she was obviously sad and proceeded to let me know that she had lost her diamond. The diamond that my husband, Jerry, had once given and proposed to me with. I felt sad for her. My husband's family has been in the jewelry business for many,many years. We (brother-in-law,Bob, sister-in-law, Helen, my husband and I) had a store in Charleston,WV and a wholesale business at one time. Anyway, this particular diamond had history and value beyond simply monetary worth. It was given to Jerry, my husband, by his parents when he graduated from high school. My husband's father, Paul, was a diamond buyer by trade and this one had been hand picked just for him. He gave it to me the day he asked me to marry him. Then later he mounted it in a necklace and gave me another diamond that he had been given by his father when we worked in the Nashville store, Diamond Outlet, now owned by my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Bob and Helen Forster. It was to be his bonus so to speak, way back in the early 80's, nearly 30 years ago. Jerry had worn both diamonds separately in rings that had been mounted for him. He never felt comfortable wearing the second one that was larger than the original one that he had been given and then remounted it for me. So, he switched them and still wasn't very comfortable wearing a diamond, ring, period ! He surprised me and had it mounted in a pendant for Christmas one year. I may have worn it once as a pendant. I did not trust myself and feared loosing it. When Mike told us that he was ready to marry Christina I asked Jerry if we could pass on the necklace (my original diamond engagement) to Mike, for Christina and so the next generation's story and heritage began. When Christina told me about loosing the diamond I tried to stay positive and assure her that it was an unfortunate accident and not to give up hope of finding it. She explained that she and Mike had turned the house upside down looking for it and that Mike did not want to tell me/us. I never worried about it. But was sad to loose the history for everyone's sake especially our grand-daughters, Mike's and Christina's girls. I had mentioned to Christina that the laundry room is a good place to look very well. Mike and I had talked several times about getting the appraisal together for the insurance claim. In fact, he texted me earlier in the day and I mentioned that I was thinking about coming to see them and bring our belated b-day gifts to our youngest grand baby since we had been in FL visiting my folks on her b-day. We briefly spoke about the paperwork. I did head to Nashville. We had a great day together, then after a good dinner, Christina and I ran to a couple of stores and the diamond came up in conversation in the car and she thought that we should tell my husband's parents. I didn't think that we needed to rush and do that yet! And told her not to worry about that. Ugh...I felt a real urge to mention again about checking the laundry room. For some reason I felt that the diamond was in the house. I had been at the house a couple of days before Christmas keeping the girls but did not want to start looking around their home without them there. Tonight we got to talking about the ring, the diamond and Mike asked Christina to get the mounting and show it to me. She did and after seeing the broken prong I felt the need to look in the laundry room but the door was closed. I told Mike that we needed to look in there and he said that they had searched in there well but Mike began to look in the washing machine again anyway with a flashlight. I shook a rug and something sounded promising as it tinkled against the floor.... only to turn out to be a black embellishment, possibly from a piece of clothing. He laughed and said, "I wish that was it"! He chuckled again after seeing what it was, "it's a black diamond!"...haha). I was on the floor peering under the washer and asked for the flashlight that he was using. About three inches under the front edge of the washing machine there it was, tilted to the side of the pavilion, that dusty lump of brilliant carbon! And the memories of what all it had been through and the memories that it represented poured over me. A group hug, a look of shear disbelief on all of our faces, a deep sigh from Mike and a tear trickled down my face. Lost and found so, the story continues! And it's not about the monetary value. It is about the legacy, about the story we build, about staying together, working out the kinks and fixing what falls apart. And never ever giving up hope!
**Reminder to everyone wearing a diamond. Have your jeweler check and clean your ring every 6 months. And spot check it yourself for prong breakage Also, as a jeweler we saw more women break prongs off their mounted rings from pulling or putting clothes in the washer than any other wear and tear.
Mike texted me a Iphone picture of the separated pair.
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