Grandma’s Wedding Rings

My mother and I were cleaning and we came across some jewelry that she wanted to organize. It was fun going through everything with my mother and listening to her reminisce about how she got certain pieces and what she remembered about them. We admired the vintage designs and discussed how to repair broken items. Then my mother pointed out a few rings that she identified as the wedding sets that belonged to my grandmothers. 

I realized that while there were a few pieces of jewelry I remembered seeing as a child, this was the first time I had ever seen my grandmother’s wedding rings. 

From left to right: my maternal grandmother’s rings (Lois was married in 1942) and my paternal grandmother’s rings (Marie was married in 1947). 

It made me emotional. Both my grandmother’s passed long ago. My paternal grandmother Marie died when my father was twelve years old; twenty two years before I was even born. My maternal grandmother Lois died when I was two years old. I have pictures of her holding me but I was too young to have any memories of her. I often wonder about the lives of these women who loved my parents dearly but are frustratingly out of reach in my own life. I will never know what their voices sounded like or hear them tell me about their own lives and experiences. They exist through a handful of photographs and the stories I hear from my parents.

There are very few things we have that belonged to them: a bottle of nail polish, a tube of lipsticks, a box of handwritten recipe cards. To get to hold their wedding rings was so beautiful. A tangible link to their lives and items they no doubt held dear and cherished.