Saturday, November 15, 2008

Unlucky but lucky

My dad gave my mom this Martha Richter amethyst ring, and she passed it along to me a few years ago. I rarely take it off, except to weed. As Mom said, "You'd hate to lose that stone in the dirt!"
If you look closely, you'll see that her words may have been prophetic. Notice something missing?
I was on the bus yesterday, holding onto a post and noticed a little wiggle in the stone. Oh my. One of the prongs has broken off. No idea when or where that happened!

I quickly put the ring in my pocket and thanked my lucky stars the other prongs were tight enough to keep the stone in long enough for me to notice.

I'll see if Ms. Richter can repair the ring, or I'll have to find someone local. Meanwhile, my finger feels naked!

9 comments:

  1. I'd say you are more lucky than not. And surely the ring can be fixed, don't you think? So pretty...but I have a Feb birthday & am partial to amethyst.

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  2. With only three prongs and one broken, you are sooooo lucky the stone didn't fall out. It's a beautiful ring.

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  3. Not only is it a gorgeous piece with priceless nostalgic value, but it has that beautiful patina of long-worn, well-loved jewelry. I wear my (now-15-year-old) wedding ring on my left hand and my late mother's on my right. The band is a little bent, but the modest diamonds in a row remain firmly in place. I wouldn't trade it for all the in-your-face bling that I see advertised today.

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  4. Earlier this year my friend lost the diamond in her wedding ring on my deck. We found it, but what a scary hour we had looking for it! Glad you were able to save this one - it's beautiful.

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  5. Yikes! I say lucky because you noticed before the stone went missing.

    My SIL wears her mother's engagement ring, a huge star sapphire that my father-in-law bought in India on a tour with the Merchant Marines, and had made into a ring for his sweetheart. She is constantly checking to see if the stone wiggles. Like a kid with a loose tooth.

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  6. I hate Naked Finger Syndrome. Glad you noticed the wiggle!

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  7. Pam, I've emailed the designer, so cross your fingers.

    Betts, lucky indeed!

    Claire, less patina than dirt. I kept meaning to get it cleaned. It's a little embarrassing. I feel very lucky to have some nice pieces of jewelry that also have a lot of sentimental value.

    JGH, so glad you were able to find the stone! That would make me feel sick.

    Kathi, that's probably a good thing. I'd hate to lose something like that.

    Mimi, it really feels weird not to have the ring on.

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  8. Wow, you were so lucky to notice the missing prong.

    I was not so lucky about 3 years ago. I was putting down leaf mulch in my garden in Mobile when I realized that I had "planted" the main diamond from my wedding set somewhere along the way.

    We looked and looked and looked and looked, but to no avail. Ironically, I lost the diamond almost 30 years to the day from when I first got it!

    We debated getting a newer, flashier set, or even a simple gold band (which would stand up to gardening much better) but it would have seemed wrong. We finally solved our dilemmas by having a local jeweler add 2 outer bands to encircle the original set - oh, and we replaced the diamond!

    The patina of dirt and scratches that had developed after wearing the rings nonstop for 30 years were somewhat washed and buffed away when the set was redone, but it feels so right to still have my original wedding bands.

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  9. Beautiful ring--I hope you find the right jeweler to fix it!

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