an heirloom

we had a girls night last night.  the boys went to the monster truck jam and we weren't invited.  sniffle.  rather than sit around and mope, brooklyn and i went with my mom and lindsay to dinner.  we waited for two hours to get a table at the cheesecake factory and then the waitress had the nerve to try and rush us through our meal.  ha. that poor waitress.

anyway, when we sat down my mom reached in her purse and pulled out a small jewelry bag.  she said, "here's your ring."

my great grandmother's engagement ring.  gwendolyn merrill woolley.  a blue sapphire over 100 years old.

i've been eyeballing this ring for the last decade or so.  i've been trying it on for as long as i can remember. wishing it could be mine so two years ago i asked my mom if i could have it for my birthday.  i could tell my mom wasn't quite ready to part with it.  i think she toyed with the idea of wearing it herself one day but, it didn't fit either of us so it would have had to be reset with a new band.  the original band too small to be sized any larger.

then i kind of forgot about it.  until recently when my mom asked me if i wanted it for my birthday this year.  i did.  i do.  i had made a resolution to stop biting my nails this year.  no easy task for this girl after an entire lifetime of chronic nail-biting.  the thought of getting this ring for my hand was a huge motivator to keep my fingers out of my mouth.  not that i'll ever have "pretty" hands, i just didn't want to insult the beautiful ring with my disgusting nubs/fingers.

because it would need to be reset, she wanted me to give her some ideas so she pulled the ring out for me to have another look-see.  guess what?  it fit! it fits perfectly!  immediately, i said, "i don't want to change anything about it.  just have it cleaned."

so she did.

and then she didn't wait for my birthday to give it to me.

i'm very excited and honestly, i feel different with it on my hand.

thank you mom.

thank you grandma for giving it to mom.

thank you great-grandma for giving it to grandma.

xoxo