Any interesting diamond stories?

[bfready]

This isn't about specs or anything, but I thought I'd post it anyway. While talking about diamond ring shopping, my grandmother told me this story of an event that happened while I was away at college:

Sometime a few years ago, she noticed the center stone from her engagement ring had fallen out. She and my grandfather will be celebrating 57 years together in September, so the ring was old and one of the prongs had broken. The diamond is certainly not very big, since they were young and he had spent a few years after high school in the army. Anyway, with limited ability, she searched everywhere for the little stone. She's 80 years old and starting to lose her eyesight, so other people in my family helped in the search but to no avail. I can't imagine how devastated she was, even though anyone in the family would have gladly purchased a replacement. Then one day a couple weeks later, she was sitting on her sofa - a sofa that's used daily - watching TV and put her hand down on the cushion next to her, reaching for the remote control. She felt something under her hand, and there was the diamond! She immediately put it and her ring in a plastic bag for storage until it could be taken to a jeweler for repair. Relaying the story today, I could see how much that little old stone was worth to her. So many of us are concerned with upgrade policies, but I think it's wonderful to see how much an original, modest ering means to someone in their twilight years.

Sorry if this post is misplaced, but I was wondering if anyone else had an interesting diamond story to share.

 

[stebbo]

We'll probably get moved to the Hangout, but here's one from me:

My grandfather had to leave school at 8 to help the family survive when his father was killed. Went through life poor, until 35 when he started to win lots of money playing poker, in fact, enough to start building a house.

Poker also saw him win a substantial quantity of diamonds that he would start selling off individually to fund the house construction.

Then he got news that the diamonds were stolen, so in a panic he hid them somewhere in a brick cavity in a wall he was constructing.

My grandfather could never recall where he put them and has now passed away.

The house still stands, in fact my family sold it last year.

 

[irinaalexandrovna]

My story is not that poetic as the previous two, but still...
One day I was reviewing my jewelry collection and found an old ring with a small diamond which I forgot about. My husband gave it to me about 15 years ago. Because I did not wear it anyway, I decided to make a gift and send to my nephew’s wife (the full story is here https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/need-a-ring-with-a-small-good-diamond.59368/ )

But suddenly I realized that I can not live without my old lovely ring and started wearing it again. I feel how it warm and comfortable and how much it means to me.

Irina

 

[poptart]

That is a cute story! I have a story...

DH and I were long distance when he got the engagement ring, and he was very proud of what he had purchased. Well, I flew in from our hometown to visit him and of course didn''t have my phone on. As I''m in the taxi to go to my hotel, I turn my phone on and I have a bunch of messages from DH. The first one is him almost crying and through the bad connection on the message and his mumbling, I can hear him say, "You''re ring got stolen and I called the police and I''m so sorry!" I go through the rest of the messages and he is basically updating me on what happened while I was on the plane. I call him and he is very tearful and insists that he is going to find THAT ring (even though it''s insured, so he could have gotten it replaced). He comes over to the hotel later that day after talking with the police and it turns out someone stole the ring out of his friend''s house after he had shown it to one of his friends... so someone he knew took it. He was livid, of course, and was relentless about getting that specific ring back. He promised that he would get it before I left again for home (which was in like a week, so I said good luck with that). A few days later he goes to ever single pawn shop in the area, and after going through about 15 of them he finally found my ring... all before I flew home. So I''m very attached to that ring because of all the work he put into getting it, and then finding it once it got stolen.

*M*

 

[kcoursolle]

Date: 3/22/2007 11:54:40 PM
Author: poptart
That is a cute story! I have a story...

DH and I were long distance when he got the engagement ring, and he was very proud of what he had purchased. Well, I flew in from our hometown to visit him and of course didn''t have my phone on. As I''m in the taxi to go to my hotel, I turn my phone on and I have a bunch of messages from DH. The first one is him almost crying and through the bad connection on the message and his mumbling, I can hear him say, ''You''re ring got stolen and I called the police and I''m so sorry!'' I go through the rest of the messages and he is basically updating me on what happened while I was on the plane. I call him and he is very tearful and insists that he is going to find THAT ring (even though it''s insured, so he could have gotten it replaced). He comes over to the hotel later that day after talking with the police and it turns out someone stole the ring out of his friend''s house after he had shown it to one of his friends... so someone he knew took it. He was livid, of course, and was relentless about getting that specific ring back. He promised that he would get it before I left again for home (which was in like a week, so I said good luck with that). A few days later he goes to ever single pawn shop in the area, and after going through about 15 of them he finally found my ring... all before I flew home. So I''m very attached to that ring because of all the work he put into getting it, and then finding it once it got stolen.

*M*

did the pawnshop owner know who sold the ring to him, did your fi ever find out who took your ring? That''s awful that someone he knew took it!

 

[poptart]

Date: 3/23/2007 3:08:22 AM
Author: kcoursolle

Date: 3/22/2007 11:54:40 PM

Author: poptart

That is a cute story! I have a story...


DH and I were long distance when he got the engagement ring, and he was very proud of what he had purchased. Well, I flew in from our hometown to visit him and of course didn''t have my phone on. As I''m in the taxi to go to my hotel, I turn my phone on and I have a bunch of messages from DH. The first one is him almost crying and through the bad connection on the message and his mumbling, I can hear him say, ''You''re ring got stolen and I called the police and I''m so sorry!'' I go through the rest of the messages and he is basically updating me on what happened while I was on the plane. I call him and he is very tearful and insists that he is going to find THAT ring (even though it''s insured, so he could have gotten it replaced). He comes over to the hotel later that day after talking with the police and it turns out someone stole the ring out of his friend''s house after he had shown it to one of his friends... so someone he knew took it. He was livid, of course, and was relentless about getting that specific ring back. He promised that he would get it before I left again for home (which was in like a week, so I said good luck with that). A few days later he goes to ever single pawn shop in the area, and after going through about 15 of them he finally found my ring... all before I flew home. So I''m very attached to that ring because of all the work he put into getting it, and then finding it once it got stolen.


*M*

did the pawnshop owner know who sold the ring to him, did your fi ever find out who took your ring? That''s awful that someone he knew took it!

The owner of the shop didn''t know the ring was stolen when she bought it, and yes, DH knew who took the ring. He didn''t press charges because she left the state and since he found the ring he didn''t want to deal with it anymore. He''s one of those people that as long as he gets what''s rightfully his, he''s happy, and he will just stay away from those people in the future, lol. He''s very laid back like that. Pursuing the matter would have just been more time and stress that neither of us had, so we didn''t bother; plus we were so young we wouldn''t have known how to go about all of that anyway, lol.

*M*

 

[anne_h]

Here''s a small one.

My grandparents (my Mom''s parents) were both from a super small farming town in rural Saskatchewan. They got engaged in the early fifties, when they were both in their late teens.

At that time, my grandfather had very little money, but he made the trip to a larger nearby town to go to the local jewelry store. The girl working at the counter went to school with my grandmother. My grandfather said the engagement was a surprise, but this girl ended up telling my grandmother (and others) that my grandfather had been in to pick out a ring, ruining the surprise.

The store owner felt so badly about it, he told my grandfather he could pick out any ring in the store. So he chose a much larger diamond that he would have been able to afford (probably still under 1ct, but that was considered large in that area at the time).

My grandparents were together until my grandfather died of cancer about ten years ago. Over the years, my grandmother had gained some weight and didn''t have her original rings sized, so now she just wears her husband''s wedding band as her own.

Anne

 

[graceelou]

My mom was shaking out a rug from a second story window in early spring about 15 years ago and her diamond fell out of her ring. She went outside to look for it but to no avail. A few weeks later, in Western NY, a snow storm came through and covered all the poor tulips that grew and bloomed too early. She came home from work and gently picked up a tulip head heavy with snow and there under it was her diamond sparkling away. Needless to say she was very happy.

 

[bfready]

These are great stories. I always thought "a diamond is forever" was a tacky tagline, but now that I've heard more stories like my grandmother's, I'm starting to believe it!

 

[Fly Girl]

Many years ago my now 81 year old father was taking my mother''s e-ring to the jeweler for repairs. On the way he dropped by the hospital to do some visitation (he was a small town preacher). When he got to the jeweler the diamond was no longer in his pocket. In a controlled panic, he retraced his steps. Searched the car, the hospital parking lot, back up to the patient''s floor, but no ring. Back out the front door of the hospital and down the front walk, he remembered that he had stopped to take out his hankerchief to blow his nose. Sure enough, there at his feet, just off the sidewalk in the grass, was my mother''s diamond ring. Marriage saved!!! and a great family story.

 

[ladykemma]

The story behind this stone. I was wandering around canterbury UK aimlessly, looking in pawn shops and regular shops. I stumbled into a junk shop. there was a ring that the owner told me was a cubic zirconia. I bought it for CZ price. I thought it might be diamond.

shortly after moved back to US. and forgot about it for two years while i went through teacher training, alternative training program. After I emerged from first and second year teacher "hell" and was able to clear my head, I went to get it sized and was told it was a real diamond. The jeweler said that is was roughly 1/2 carat vs1 or 2 and about h color (without a formal appraisal). The table is in the european style, wider than americans prefer, definitely not "ideal" in any way. It is hard to capture the beauty of the stone with my camera.

I wore it like that as a middle finger ring for a while. I was tired of the 10 prong english setting that hid the stone, rather than popped the stone so I went to jared''s to see about a mounting. I also nervously wanted to test the waters for white gold, instead of yellow gold. I selected a clearance mounting for about $450 total and fifty bucks more to set it. so grand total for this piece is $700, roughly.

it was my first white gold piece. i kept the platinum head 18K yellow gold setting in case i want to put it back.

edited for spelling and clarity

 

[ladykemma]

canterbury ring in fresh setting

 

[ladykemma]

here is the old setting

 

[ZhenyaH]

I''m currently live in the ME and work in a deployed environment. So there''s always lots of sand and gravel (where grass should be). I was having dinner at the chow hall one night and looked down: the diamond was gone. Actually, the diamond still in its prongs was gone. Panicked, my husband and I, along with co-workers searched the entire dining facility to no avail. We knew that the chances were slim to none that we''d find it--I didn''t even know when or where it might have fallen off. We came back to our office and nothing. My husband searched both cars--nothing. While I was combing the bathroom, my co-worker was outside on a road leading to the chow hall with a flashlight. Then a couple of people came up to him and asked what he was doing. When they heard, they started looking too. Not even 2 minutes later, one of the guys spotted the diamond!!! No one could believe that it was found. Boy was I happy that night.

Then I came home and sealed my ring with its broken head in a zip lock bag to take it back to the jewelry store where I got it from. It would be at least a month and a half before I went home to get it repaired I knew I had to keep it in a safe place. But after taking some pictures of the ring, I left the zip lock back on the desk. The next day, my son''s nanny was cleaning the desk and threw away the zip lock back. (She''s getting older and wears glasses.) First she noticed the weight of the bag and heard a thump noise (the ring hitting the tile floor inside the trash bag). Lo and behold, she had thrown out my ring! But I would not be sitting here typing the story if I didn''t get it back. The ring''s now safe in my dresser drawer. Now, getting it fixed is another story...

 

[Diamond*Dana]

My mother in law was a surgical scrub nurse...one day while at work, she noticed what looked like a piece of glass on the surgical table. Turns out, it was her diamond that had fallen out of the setting.
She passed away very unexpectantly in 2003, and I now have her e-ring that will eventually go to my daughter (she is 2 years old so it will be a while). I wear her ring from time to time, and I can''t help but smile thinking of when she shared her story of the "piece of glass" on the surgical table.

 

[luckystar112]

Date: 3/22/2007 11:43:29 PM
Author: stebbo
We''ll probably get moved to the Hangout, but here''s one from me:


My grandfather had to leave school at 8 to help the family survive when his father was killed. Went through life poor, until 35 when he started to win lots of money playing poker, in fact, enough to start building a house.


Poker also saw him win a substantial quantity of diamonds that he would start selling off individually to fund the house construction.


Then he got news that the diamonds were stolen, so in a panic he hid them somewhere in a brick cavity in a wall he was constructing.


My grandfather could never recall where he put them and has now passed away.


The house still stands, in fact my family sold it last year.

What was your address again?