|
Edited on Sat Dec-13-08 01:00 PM by sohndrsmith
marrying is a gem...
Personally, I sort of lost on all counts. : ) I had to buy my own wedding ring (didn't have a wedding, just a hetero civil union), and my father ended up buying me a diamond ring after he became terminally ill and wanted me to have one since my I never received or had one from my (now) not-a-gem-by-any-standard ex...
My ex did buy me a diamond, though... at one point. An earring. One. Earring. Just before we separated, it disappeared. Lo and behold about a year later, he got his ear pierced and sported an earring that looked awfully familiar. Agh, who knows. Maybe innocent coincidences are just that, but so many things like that were far from coincidental, so the whole mess is rather sad.
Things don't make life miraculous, but having enough of the right sort of things is awfully handy. Still, my diamond ring is precious to me not because it's a diamond, but because it was from my dad - who wanted his daughter to have a diamond ring since she never had an engagement ring, and the other circumstances involved that matter even more to me.
This "fancy" diamond ring (a little more than 1 ct, total - its 5 stones all the same size in a band) is inscribed in honor of my father, who was a brilliant cook - the best I've ever known. Growing up we ate by candle light all the time - my memory wants to say "every night" but it wasn't. Still, it was unusual since we weren't wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but we ate fine food - be it simple or elegant, it was wonderful. I didn't have pizza until I was in high school, and "fast food" was just alien... it still is to some extent.
When my father got sick, we took an 8 hour drive to Yale/New Haven every two weeks, sometimes more - so he could go to the Nathan Smith Clinic, and as my dad's disease progressed, we ended up relying on whatever was handy, and if we were driving, that meant we ate on the road sometimes. The only "fast food" place I recall going to with my dad was Dunkin' Donuts... (and it was weird to see him there, believe me). He was out of his element, but he did love sweet things so it didn't matter much. The shop was very busy, and my dad finally got to the front of the line, and, in his typical way - was oblivious to the concept of "hurry". People are used to those in front of them knowing the drill and rattling off their order and moving along. My dad kept looking and thinking and twirling his short beard between his thumb and index finger, and I started to wish I was invisible. Finally, he decided, and told the teen behind the counter what he wanted, and said:
"I'll have a doughnut."
I guess you had to be there... he was so naive and clueless and didn't realize that he needed to be a little more specific, and he didn't catch on all that fast, either, but we eventually got out of there and it's still a favorite memory.
And so, my lovely diamond ring was inscribed with the words: "I'll have a doughnut" not long after that day, and my dad's life having come to a close.
And now you know why my ring is priceless... : )
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
