Diamond Tales, part II

It still seems like Jake's reflection should accompany mine.

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When I took the diamond to the jeweler's to have it reset, the salesperson checked it out carefully through a loupe. He said, "Oh - this is an old family piece?" I don't remember how I responded but it isn't the first time I've heard something like that. It is cut in what they call old European style and has one facet that was only popular during the 1920s. I've been told it could be recut to heighten the sparkle, but really if you could see this thing - it is crazy sparkly. Crazy.

The diamond came from the engagement ring of a woman who was happily married for 60 years. A dear friend and neighbor of my ex husband had inherited the ring. When we got engaged, he mentioned the stone to my ex, who bargained for it and eventually bought it at a greatly reduced price. The bargaining put a strain on their friendship. Oh my ex!

The thing is, I didn't want a diamond. I was clear about that with my ex. He really didn't care what I wanted. He wanted the diamond, so that is what I got. Well, ok then. I loved the art deco setting of the original ring. I thought it would be wonderful to simply have the ring sized and wear it as it was worn by the happily married woman for all those decades.

But no, my ex husband didn't like the setting. He designed a ring that was so thick, so heavy with yellow gold that it dwarfed the diamond. It's not the biggest diamond ever, but it's almost two carats, so it's not exactly dainty. It takes a lot of gold to make that thing look small but that's what he wanted, and that's what I got, no matter how I felt about it. Once it was set in its heavy lockdown of yellow gold, he never touched the ring again. He was almost superstitious about it. He would recoil when he saw it on my finger and begged me not to wear it on the subway. For heaven's sake.

The feng shui of my marriage, oh my.

After we were divorced, I put the ring in a box and ignored it. A few years later during the bling era, I had it extracted from the gold setting and made into an earring. It was too big to be an earring, really, but that was during the 90s. The bigger, the better. It felt extremely liberating to have the diamond released from its prison of gold. I loved wearing the earring and felt it brought clarity to my thoughts and dreams. But when bling was no longer the thing, I again put it into a box.

The decision recently to have it reset came out of the nowhere. They did a beautiful job. Though still not nearly as beautiful as it was in its original art deco setting, it is truly gorgeous.

So you see I am and have been forming a relationship with that stone for a long time. It is becoming an old family piece.

I put it in a dish with sea salt yesterday, to see if I could cleanse the bad juju from it. My cough worsened as soon as I took it off - which is kind of strange. Last night I went to check on it. My sense is that the diamond purified the salt! How is that possible? But it seems to have helped the salt rather than the other way around. Any connection it has to my miserable marriage is only in my head and heart, not in the diamond.

I gargled with warm salt water made with the purified salt after which the cough receded and I got a good night's sleep.

I'll wear the diamond today for sure. All my whinging about my ex doesn't help anything and no longer has anything to do with the beautiful, colorful, sparkly, quirky art deco era diamond. I am reclaiming it. Onwards and upwards, and: shalom.