The Ring

This is a confession.I lost Mama's ring.

Daddy gave Mama a mother's ring sometime around 1986, when they remarried. The ring did not look like the mothers' rings sold in jewelry stores. I don't know if Daddy didn't understand that the ring was to have the birthstone of each of their children. Knowing Daddy, though, he put his own unique signature on the ring. The ring he gave mama had a gold filigree band with three garnets set on the band. Yes, they had three children, but garnets are my birthstone. Rob was born in October and Lori in March. I'm the only January.

Mama wore the ring daily until this year. She lost weight after Daddy died and the ring no longer fit snugly on her finger.

It slipped off once while she was fishing at the dock. She managed to catch the ring before it fell into the water.

After that she was afraid she would lose the ring and told me she wanted me to have it now rather than when she died.

On Thanksgiving Day, of this year, 2008, she gave the ring to me. It fit my thumb, though loosely.

I planned to have it re-sized once I made it back home.

On Saturday, two days after Thanksgiving I put the ring on, even though I knew there was a chance it would fall my my thumb.

With the ring on my thumb I set off for Wall-Mart.

I bought dog food and book mailers. Then I headed back to my car.

When I got to the underpass by McDonald's I saw a Salvation Army bell ringer working the intersection.

Although I had made a donation the day before and had already dropped off an angle tree gift, I pulled over, rolled down my window. I pulled out my change purse, unzipped it and reached out the window to dump the contents into the charity bucket.

The bell ringer said, "Be careful, do't drop them diamonds in the bucket."

I looked at my thumb. The ring was gone!

I asked the man if I had, indeed, dropped a ring in the bucket. He looked inside the bucket but didn't see a ring.



I worried about that ring the rest of the day and all through Sunday. Yes, I called Wall-mart to report the ring as lost. However, Wall-mart doesn't maintain a lost and found box, so they were no help to me.



On Monday, i put an ad in the local paper, asking for the ring's return. The ad ran three days.

On Tuesday I went to the Salvation Army office and explained what I was looking for.

The director called the people who had worked Saturday.

One lady did indeed find a ring in her bucket. Unfortunately, that ring was a silver band with one, blue stone.

There has been no answer to the newspaper ad.





I'm sure mama's ring will show up under some stranger's Christmas tree.

I don't know what bothers me most: that Daddy gave the ring to Mama, that she trusted me with the ring, or  that the stones were by birthstone.

All of the above, I suppose.

I haven't told Mama that I lost the ring. I don't intend to tell her-ever.

If she asks about the ring, of course, I'll tell her. until then, My lips are sealed.

Dale and Cody think this is a marvelous blackmail opportunity.

They are upset about the ring, too, but they see the humor in the situation.

I feel that I've let down both of my parents.

I really wanted that ring. It would have gone well with the necklace and bracelet Dale gave me a few years ago.