40 years on ...

Over the last twenty-five years, I've dug into the history of my family tree. I've used a commercial website to find snippets of information that have connected stories and facts that I heard as a child. One of the most endearing pieces of family history that I have realised involves a diamond ring. I was given this diamond ring, a three stone setting, a week and day before my fifteenth birthday back in 1986, by my paternal grandmother, Dorothy. 
 
Every Sunday, she used to be collected by my mum and join us for Sunday lunch, a read of the Sunday tabloid and its accompanying supplement and a return journey back to Burntwood, in Staffordshire. This particular Sunday, she called me over to her array of shopping bags and presented me with a diamond ring for my birthday present. Her manner wasn’t sentimental, but matter of fact, so she presented me with a ring with a tone of 'here, this is for you’. I was overwhelmed. 
 
A week and a day before my fifteenth birthday and I was being given a gorgeous diamond ring. My father looked on, my mother watched and I was flabbergasted. I remember saying 'thank you', over and over again. It was too much to take in. She explained that the ring hadn't been bought for her, but had belonged to a young woman who needed to take her children back to Ireland. The lady needed money so asked my nan for help and gave her the ring in exchange for cash, saying ‘I'll come back for the ring but if I don't you sell it and get your money back’. The lady left and never returned. My nan said she always hoped the lady and her children made it safely back to Ireland. I’ve worn that ring ever since, for 40 years apart from a two-week absence while it was resized and cleaned in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham.

Tonight, I have done a little more digging in to the family tree and have learnt that my nan's father, James Thomas was buried January 1935, a week and a day before her fifteenth birthday. I'm sitting here in shock. To think that she endured such loss a week before her 15th birthday yet, gave me the gift of diamonds, a week and day before mine. I hope my nan gained enjoyment and comfort knowing that my fifteenth birthday was so different to hers.