During her lifetime, my mother’s mother—my grandmother—acquired several lovely pieces of jewelry. Her ten-diamond cluster engagement ring mounted on a platinum pedestal. An elegant cocktail ring with four vertical diamonds flanked by two diamond-shaped dark sapphires in a bed of swirling white gold. Several broaches, one in particular—a cameo flanked by pearls and rhinestones. Another, a mound of pearls that reminded me of a discovered treasure chest. And others, of course.
When my grandmother passed away—the year before my birth—Mother, being the only daughter, acquired the jewelry. She also acquired pieces that had belonged to her grandmother and her great-grandmother. All delicate and lovely.
When my parents became engaged, Daddy slipped a traditional 1950s engagement ring made up of a large central diamond surrounded by horizontally-set diamonds on both sides. A thick row of diamonds that served as the wedding ring complemented the engagement ring. Mother wore those rings, of course, on her left ring finger. As far back as I can recall, when she “went out,” she wore her mother’s engagement ring on her right ring finger and the cocktail ring on one of her pinkies.
As a young child—and a girly-girl at that—I spent hours sitting with my mother’s jewelry box between the knees of my crossed legs. I’d slip my grandmother’s ring on my left ring finger and pretend some handsome prince had just asked me to be his bride. His princess. I’d place the cocktail ring on one of my pinkies (which the ring swallowed) and pretend I would soon have tea with the queen. I ran tiny fingers across the gold and jewels that made up the broaches and necklaces and—occasionally—I clipped Grandmother’s heavy earrings onto the tender lobes of my ears.
And then wondered how in the world women ever wore such things.
Years went by and Mother began to develop arthritis in her hands. She removed her mother’s engagement and cocktails rings for a final time, slipped them into the velvet-lined jewelry box, and closed the lid. She continued to wear her wedding rings until the day my father decided he no longer wanted to be married. Then, she removed the rings and added those to the box. But, with her left hand being smaller than her right, she took out her mother’s engagement ring and began wearing it on the left ring finger.