In 2004, Mrs. L.A. and I became engaged. My mother was in the process of dying at the time. She gave her car to my sister, and she gave me her wedding ring to give to my wife-to-be. She told me the ring was worth $13,000.
Then the tsunami hit Indonesia. Mrs. L.A. was horrified. She decided she couldn’t sit comfortably when people are dying. She broke off the engagement, and started her Nursing education. I reckoned we were just old friends now, and when she moved in with me in 2010, I thought we were roommates. Little did I know she felt differently. (Note: I have a Y-chromosome, and therefore am clueless.) Cutting to the chase: We were married in August 2015, and she got the ring. Personally, I thought the ring was… not exactly my style. Mrs. L.A. thought it looked like something that would have been made back in the '80s. Which it was. But once it was on her finger, she loved how it looks.
Now, I know I’d told her, more than once, how my mom gave me the ring. I know that I told her, more than once, that my mom said it was worth 13 kilobucks. I wanted to have it insured. Mrs. L.A. had the two halves of the ring joined together, had it sized to fit her finger, and had it appraised. She groused about the total cost, which I think was about $350 for everything. But she said she didn’t really mind. Anyway, she brought the appraisal home. Two copies. We read them together, she reading aloud. The appraisal was very detailed, describing the diamond (I think it’s 1.18 ct), the setting, etc. When she got to the appraised value, which was $10,600, she stopped. ‘Ten thousand? :eek: I thought you said it was worth 13 hundred!’
Before, she thought I was being a little obsessive to want to insure it. When I told her my mom said the ring was worth $13K, she only heard ‘thirteen’. She didn’t hear the ‘thousand’ bit. Her upbringing was different from mine, and such large numbers were rare. She really liked the ring before the appraisal. After seeing the number in print, she really really likes it. Several of her patients have said things like, ‘Wow! What a rock!’ (The pictures don’t do the ring any justice at all.)
She teases me that she bought my ring (which I lost a couple of months ago – I’ve replaced it), while I didn’t pay anything for the ring I gave her. I retort, 'Yeah, it didn’t cost me anything… Just my mother’s life! :mad:
After a couple of years now, she finally took the ring off while she coloured her hair. I thought it was time I snagged it and took some quick snaps.