The migratory ring...
Apr. 16th, 2018 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osodecanelaMid July 1962
A young boy is at the beach with his family. It's a crowded day at Jones Beach. He's seven and the oldest of three kids. His parents are sitting on a blanket entertaining his youngest sister who's just turned two. He is digging in the sand, building a sand castle with his four-year-old sister, just out of the reach of the surf. A yellow glint catches his eye as he digs.It's the back side of the man's gold ring. Quietly, he pockets it. An errant wave laps at the edge of the sand castle. The back of it collapses.
"Come on Susan. We need to go back to mom and pop." She balks, but he insists and sullenly she follows them back to their parents.
That was how this ring entered my consciousness. Settling down between my parents, I showed them my prize, which my father took for safekeeping. I don't know whether the ring fit him or if he had to have it resized, but he wore it for the remainder of his life. After all, what on earth would a seven-year-old boy do with an adult man's ring?
Let me digress for a moment. At seven, I was already aware of precious metals. Silver was still in circulation in our coins and change still had value. Further, I was no stranger to jewelry. Mom's brother, my uncle Sid was a jeweler. I recognized the star sapphire in this man's ring, though I had never seen a grey one before, only blue. The setting was asymmetric in yellow gold, five tiny diamond chips setting to a streak of white gold along one side of the larger gem, a jeweler's homage to the mid century modern style that marked so much of the 50s and early 60s.
30 odd years later as he was in his dying process, my father told my mother to bring him his gold bracelet which he proceeded to put on my wrist. He then reminded my mom before I returned home to give me this ring. It came home with me after the funeral. Unlike the bracelet, which like my wedding ring is never off of me, the ring was not something that I could consider for every day wear. First of all I had to resize it in order to fit me, but more to the point, in my work as a physician my hands were constantly in and out of water & in and out of of exam gloves. After the ring was resized to fit my right ring finger, it went into my jewelry box in the safe. I think I wore it once on a night out in the months after Pop's death.
I went to the safe about three months after Pop died, intent on wearing the ring to a holiday party we've been invited to. The ring was not in the jewelry box. In fact, it was nowhere to be found in the safe, nor anywhere else I looked. I was absolutely heartsick. Honestly, it had more to do with the fact that it had been something my father had worn for 30 years.Still, there was his bracelet which I always wore, and pretty much always will. There is always a gold chain on my neck. It was there for me to put my wedding ring and the bracelet on whenever I had to do a delivery, office surgery, or assist in the operating room.
My father came from an observant Jewish family; his parents were Orthodox. He was buried in a kosher casket in a Jewish cemetery, 50 feet from his father-in-law. The summer after his passing I flew back to New Jersey for the unveiling ceremony of his headstone.
The morning of pop's unveiling, I showered and wrapped in a towel went back to mom's guest bedroom to dry off and get dressed for the service. I tossed my towel on the bed and after getting dressed grabbed the towel to hang back up. That was when my jaw hit the floor. Underneath the towel in the center of the bed was the ring. WTF?!?! I had had the ring resized in California. It had disappeared from my safe in California. I had not brought it with me to New Jersey, and yet there it was lying in the middle of the bed.
So yes, I did wear it to my father's unveiling.
The story however does not end there. In the years since the ring has disappeared several more times, only to reappear years later. Please note, I have no other possessions that have done this. There have been a few things that have disappeared that have never again resurfaced.
When we moved from Guerneville in January of last year when I packed up the contents of the safe into a case to move things once again the ring was missing. Not in the jewelry box, neither the one in my safe, nor the one in my dresser. Neither was it anywhere to be found in the safe.
I finally got around to unpacking the case yesterday & lo and behold there in the jewelry box was the ring. I guess now that I've lost as much weight as I have & once again have a finger the ring will fit, it decided it was time to reappear. I don't dare wear it on my right ring finger. It's now much too big for that finger. Instead it now sits on my left middle finger next to my wedding.
Honestly, I'm not sure I know what to think. In some ways it feels like an old friend who's here for a visit. I'm glad to see him, but I have mixed feelings about getting too attached.
A young boy is at the beach with his family. It's a crowded day at Jones Beach. He's seven and the oldest of three kids. His parents are sitting on a blanket entertaining his youngest sister who's just turned two. He is digging in the sand, building a sand castle with his four-year-old sister, just out of the reach of the surf. A yellow glint catches his eye as he digs.It's the back side of the man's gold ring. Quietly, he pockets it. An errant wave laps at the edge of the sand castle. The back of it collapses.
"Come on Susan. We need to go back to mom and pop." She balks, but he insists and sullenly she follows them back to their parents.
That was how this ring entered my consciousness. Settling down between my parents, I showed them my prize, which my father took for safekeeping. I don't know whether the ring fit him or if he had to have it resized, but he wore it for the remainder of his life. After all, what on earth would a seven-year-old boy do with an adult man's ring?
Let me digress for a moment. At seven, I was already aware of precious metals. Silver was still in circulation in our coins and change still had value. Further, I was no stranger to jewelry. Mom's brother, my uncle Sid was a jeweler. I recognized the star sapphire in this man's ring, though I had never seen a grey one before, only blue. The setting was asymmetric in yellow gold, five tiny diamond chips setting to a streak of white gold along one side of the larger gem, a jeweler's homage to the mid century modern style that marked so much of the 50s and early 60s.
30 odd years later as he was in his dying process, my father told my mother to bring him his gold bracelet which he proceeded to put on my wrist. He then reminded my mom before I returned home to give me this ring. It came home with me after the funeral. Unlike the bracelet, which like my wedding ring is never off of me, the ring was not something that I could consider for every day wear. First of all I had to resize it in order to fit me, but more to the point, in my work as a physician my hands were constantly in and out of water & in and out of of exam gloves. After the ring was resized to fit my right ring finger, it went into my jewelry box in the safe. I think I wore it once on a night out in the months after Pop's death.
I went to the safe about three months after Pop died, intent on wearing the ring to a holiday party we've been invited to. The ring was not in the jewelry box. In fact, it was nowhere to be found in the safe, nor anywhere else I looked. I was absolutely heartsick. Honestly, it had more to do with the fact that it had been something my father had worn for 30 years.Still, there was his bracelet which I always wore, and pretty much always will. There is always a gold chain on my neck. It was there for me to put my wedding ring and the bracelet on whenever I had to do a delivery, office surgery, or assist in the operating room.
My father came from an observant Jewish family; his parents were Orthodox. He was buried in a kosher casket in a Jewish cemetery, 50 feet from his father-in-law. The summer after his passing I flew back to New Jersey for the unveiling ceremony of his headstone.
The morning of pop's unveiling, I showered and wrapped in a towel went back to mom's guest bedroom to dry off and get dressed for the service. I tossed my towel on the bed and after getting dressed grabbed the towel to hang back up. That was when my jaw hit the floor. Underneath the towel in the center of the bed was the ring. WTF?!?! I had had the ring resized in California. It had disappeared from my safe in California. I had not brought it with me to New Jersey, and yet there it was lying in the middle of the bed.
So yes, I did wear it to my father's unveiling.
The story however does not end there. In the years since the ring has disappeared several more times, only to reappear years later. Please note, I have no other possessions that have done this. There have been a few things that have disappeared that have never again resurfaced.
When we moved from Guerneville in January of last year when I packed up the contents of the safe into a case to move things once again the ring was missing. Not in the jewelry box, neither the one in my safe, nor the one in my dresser. Neither was it anywhere to be found in the safe.
I finally got around to unpacking the case yesterday & lo and behold there in the jewelry box was the ring. I guess now that I've lost as much weight as I have & once again have a finger the ring will fit, it decided it was time to reappear. I don't dare wear it on my right ring finger. It's now much too big for that finger. Instead it now sits on my left middle finger next to my wedding.
Honestly, I'm not sure I know what to think. In some ways it feels like an old friend who's here for a visit. I'm glad to see him, but I have mixed feelings about getting too attached.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-18 05:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-04-18 11:06 pm (UTC)Secondly, and really the bigger issue, is given the recent road closure affecting our old property it looks bad for the foreseeable future we will be unable to sell our old place and I am faced with the reality of having to go back to work. That once again means hands in and out of exam gloves and in and out of water all day long which that ring is definitely not conducive to. I suppose I can always put it on a chain around my neck.