FAMILY JEWELS

I FELT the need to wear jewellery with a family history to the weekend wedding of my cousin. I have a few precious pieces, all of them with ...


I FELT the need to wear jewellery with a family history to the weekend wedding of my cousin. I have a few precious pieces, all of them with a story.

The amethyst and rose gold piece was a gift from my nana and pop on my 21st. I lost it at my university graduation ceremony. It came off with the gown and though I searched the campus and reported the loss to campus security and the police it was never returned. My mother was aghast, as she should have been, when she finally extracted the painful truth from me. My grandparents had scrimped and saved to buy me something precious for that special occasion and I had been careless and lost it. My mother marched me down to the jeweller and we ordered a replacement. I was sworn not to tell my grandmother, but I think she knows. My mother and I paid for the replacement necklace and for years I couldn’t wear it. I do wear it now and believe it to be the original; lovingly picked out for me by my grandmother.

The amethyst ring was my mother's and another 21st gift. She had it resized for my fat fingers. My mother’s hands are slender and her fingers long. I have my father’s hands, short and stumpy. It was resized to fit my ring finger, but a couple of years ago I lost weight and it’s now too big for my middle finger. A bulging knuckle is all that keeps it fixed to my hand.

The gold chain was a gift from my nana and pop. I rarely wear it, but every so often that single piece is “just right”.

The sapphire and diamond ring has a gold band melted down from a gold watch my mother gave me, age 10. In hindsight giving a precious wind-on watch to a 10-year-old wasn’t such a good idea. The watch had to be taken off every time I was near water and being a typical 10-year-old I jumped into the pool with it on. The watch stopped and was never to go again. I was scolded and the watch, along with anything precious already in my care, was taken from me. My mother had high expectations, but then, she’d had the watch since age nine and never jumped into a pool with it. The gold in the watch was melted down to make the band and the sapphire was one dug from Central Queensland, where I lived from about age five to 10. The diamonds were, I believe, a last minute addition requested and paid for by my nana.

The wedding band belonged to my nana. Are you noting a theme? It was the first of two wedding bands, a second being needed when she could no longer remove this one and it threatened to cut into her finger. It’s tiny and fits only on my pinkie finger. My sister wears the second one.

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