the ring

With Mother's Day right around the corner, this is a well-timed post because it is about my mom.   

The ring. So, I'm not talking about the scary movie that made my friend, Scott, scream like a woman. I mean he can't be blamed. That little girl at the end was creeee-py, for sure. I'm talking about THIS RING, which seems to have a curse of its own. These pictures do not do it justice, but in my defense I'm an attorney not a photographer.

When my parents got divorced, my great-aunt, Florence, had the ring made for my mom. My mom wore it every day. Shortly before Florence was planned to come for a visit, my mom noticed that the center stone had fallen out. I recall laying at the end of our dock on Ely Lake peering down in the water in the event it had 1) fallen out in the lake and 2) we were actually going to be able to find it in there. There was garbage to be dug through, drawers to be looked in, etc. Ralph, brilliant as he is, came up with the completely reasonable and obvious idea of just going to the jeweler and getting the stone replaced. DUH. So that's what we did. Ring fixed. Everyone happy. Florence (RIP) never the wiser.

My mom is undoubtedly wearing that ring in the above photo, but it is most certainly eclipsed by the awesome-ness of that ruffly dress. I loved that dress.

After my mom got sick, she went through this awful, terrible, but probably necessary (for her) process of identifying things that I would like to have after she was gone by putting sticky notes with my name on them. As part of this process, she wanted to leave the ring for me. The ring that she wore every day until she was gone. Shortly after her death, I had it resized and had some gold added to the band, which was thin.

Despite having it resized, when my fingers were cold, the ring was a little loose. One morning a couple years ago, I noticed that it wasn't on my finger. I couldn't remember taking it off and I couldn't seem to find it. Thinking that it would show up eventually, I continued my morning flipping on the blender which in turn made this awful sound of the ring being blended up with my apple spinach smoothie. Devastation ensued. Probably similar to the way my mom felt that day when the center stone was gone. Thankfully, most of the parts were salvageable and a few weeks ago Gus surprised me with the ring. Shiny and new.

Missing your beautiful soul on Mother's Day and every day, Mommy. But at least I feel a teensy bit closer to you with the ring back on my finger.

Yeah, I'm TOTALLY wearing overalls.