The Reminder

I made a lucky find in one of the antique shops downtown. I was looking through the jewelry and I was having a blast. It reminded me of all those time I would go through my grandmother's jewelry with my mom as a child. My grandmother, who passed away when I was only two years old, had a modest assortment of costume jewelry. Fun, colorful pieces made of metals, plastics and resins ranging mostly from the 40's through 60's. Only a few small, delicate items were real and valuable. The majority of her collection were fashion pieces of little worth, but they hold sentimental value simple because they belonged to her.

As I've gotten older I feel that I share her taste in jewelry. I have a few small valuable pieces but most of my jewelry is comprised of a multitude of cheap assorted plastics and metals. I never spend much on any of them but I do enjoy the variety and trendiness that comes with fashion jewelry. I often hope that I will one day have grandchildren who enjoy looking at all of my antique plastic adornments.

So as I was rooting through the jumbled displays of antique jewelry in this shop I found this ring. 

From the top it looks like a flower and from the side it resembles a pine cone. The stones are fake and a little cloudy with age. Some of the prongs that hold the stones in place are bent. Yet of all the pieces of jewelry this one felt like something my grandmother would have owned. I paid five dollars for it and it reminds me of every afternoon I spent looking through dusty jewelry boxes with my mom; touching the tangible reminders of someone I only know through photographs.