Sentimental Value

My mother didn't have a lot of expensive jewelry. I remember she had several sets of earrings, matching necklaces and pins - mostly costume jewelry. Whenever she got dressed up in her "Sunday Best", she always wore some of her jewelry. As a girl, I would go to her small, cloth lined jewelry box and look at her collection. Everything was very fancy to a young girl. There was one piece that I never saw her wear. It was a ring with a stone missing in the setting. The loose stone sat in the jewelry box along with the ring. I never asked her why she didn't get it fixed so she could wear the ring.

When she passed away 24 years ago, that was the one piece of jewelry I took for myself with the idea that I'd get the ring fixed and wear it. The ring sat in my jewelry box for almost 13 years before I took it to get it repaired. By then, I had lost the loose stone and had to replace it. I've worn the ring almost daily ever since.

Until just recently, I didn't think that the ring had much sentiment to any of my brothers and sisters. But after sending my younger brother a picture of our newborn granddaughter, he remarked that he got more sentimental seeing Mom's ring in my hand than looking at the picture of my granddaughter. I learned from him that he saw Mom wear the ring later in her life. She must have put in on often enough for him to recognize it 24 years later. His reaction has given me reason to pause and reflect a little on my mother and "the ring".

My mother had a comfortable life. But I know that there were some things that she would have liked to have done - one of them was traveling. This may be shocking to some, but one of the reasons why she didn't travel was my Dad. He couldn't understand the interest or be bothered with it. My mom was nine years younger than my Dad. She said to me, more than once, that she would probably out live him. She looked forward to being able to travel with her sisters to some of the places she had only heard about. When she became ill with cancer and knew that she would not survive my Dad, she was a little angry knowing those travels wouldn't happen.

So what's the sentimental value in all this? I look at the ring I wear on my right hand a little differently. My mom wasn't able to travel, but her ring has been pretty well traveled in the last several years - many places in the United States, as well as Paris, London, Scotland, and Denmark. Now when I head out on another travel adventure, I will be taking a little of my mother with me in the form of a special ring. It makes me a little sentimental.