New Rings

In the October of 2004 Keith proposed to me on a Sunday evening in a park. Later, when we were getting ready to shop for a ring, his mother, LaDawn, gave him the set that had belonged to her mother. At the time, I didn't know my soon-to-be mother in-law all that well. The intention had been to take it to a jewelry store and have it cleaned and restored. It really was/is a beautiful setting.

However, the salesperson at the store kept talking about how it was out of fasion to wear yellow gold and wouldn't it be great to get a new setting and simply take the diamond out of the old setting. As those is the business of sales would say, I got "sold." I found a setting that I felt I simply had to have. Keith called his mom to make sure she was okay with just using the diamond and not the setting. She said "yes" and so we went ahead and did it.

After we were married I learned a little more about my new family. Around our one year mark we spent Christmas in Arizona with the Hargraves (LaDawns family.) I learned that Keith's grandmother had been an accomplished pianist and even taught piano lessons. The whole reason my mother in-law wanted me to have her mother's rings was so that they would "be on a piano playing finger again." She never complained about my choice not to use the original setting but, deep down, I knew I had not made the right decision. If I were in her shoes I would have been unhappy with the situation. Unfortunately, I lacked the courage to own up to my mistake for about another 5 years.

My first engagement ring was absolutely beautiful. We used the money we saved on the center stone to get a diamond encrusted setting. After I started wearing it, I immediately started having problems with diamonds coming loose and falling out. But, not to worry, the store had a great warrenty. Still, I was always very worried about the center stone falling out so I never wore it very often. As seldom as I wore it, I continued to have problems with diamonds falling out and finally, the store refused to honor their warrenty based on a technicality (I won't go into that.)

That brings us up to the present. It seemed that kharma had come back to bite me and we decided that it was finally time to make the switch. LaDawn was happy to return the original setting and we had the stone reset, the ring refinished, and resized. Now, when I wear it I have a feeling that it is finally how it was meant to be. I guess that ring just needs to be on a "piano playing finger" and I am truely honored to wear it.