A Grandmother, Three Sisters

I really wanted the picture almost as much as I had once wanted the ring

My sisters at one time had owned both. However, I must admit that was because I, as the oldest, relinquished possession of both items.

Neither item had any monetary value, but that has never been the issue. However, let me tell you about the ring.

The ring, a once perfect circle of wafer thin yellow gold has the inscription of our Grandparent’s wedding date inside the fragile golden band.

I had been “allowed” to wear it on my pinky finger the year I turned 16. I loved it and wore it day and night until a beautiful Monday afternoon in October four years later.

That morning I removed it, gave it to my younger sister and told her it was hers until her own wedding day.

I instructed her that it then belonged to our youngest sister until she, too, met her Prince Charming.

However, the scenario (which I had absolutely no right to dictate) never evolved despite implicit directions. One of my sisters (unidentified) dropped it out of our fifth floor window into the street.

It was retrieved, but impaired in the sense it never regained it’s original shape. It remained forever unique but oval. Consequently, it would never again be worn on a pinky but only fit another digit.

Decades passed, lives changed, and so did families. Then without warning COVID claimed a victim from our clan. My youngest sister departed without warning or adieus. And in the confusion of the pandemic, the only concern was sorrow and the reality of loss.

Time again, as always, moved slowly, and when life began to focus, I inquired about the ring. I learned it had been claimed by “right of domain” and perhaps rightfully, so, by my surviving sibling.

But I have the picture, and I do hope one day another sixteen year old enjoys wearing Ellen Quinn King’s wedding ring until a Prince Charming arrives to claim her.

I like to believe our Grandmother would have agreed.