Owies Nana
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- May 16, 2010
- Messages
- 422
Help!
I have a 14k yellow gold sand dollar charm/pendant that my husband gave to me when I was pregnant with our first child 42 years ago. Last Friday my three year old granddaughter managed to mangle it with a backwards head butt to my chest while sitting on my lap. She crushed it into my diamond pendant that I received when our son went to college leaving us as empty nesters. The blow took a chunk out of the sand dollar and damaged the bale on the charm.
The pendant is significant to me beyond being a pregnancy gift during my first pregnancy. I was diagnosed with endometrial cancer in the spring a little over four years ago. Shortly before my biopsy, I found a perfect sand dollar after a magnificent, terrifying storm on the beach where I had walked for over 60 years with my family. I had never found one before, and, despite the high, violent surf from the storm, this one was perfect (though not alive!) when I found it while waiting for my diagnosis. I heard the voice of God Himself speak into my soul saying, "Do you see all the carnage here? All of the dead fish and pieces of crabs that have been beaten by the waves and torn to pieces during the violence of this storm? I kept this sand dollar so that amidst all this carnage from the storm so that you would find it. If I can keep this sand dollar in perfect shape during such a storm, I can keep you safe, even if you have to deal with cancer."
At that point, I remembered that I had this pendant in my old jewelry box. I had never worn it because I didn't have a chain that would fit through the bale. I realized that I had kept it for 38 years, never wearing it, because THIS was the moment that I needed to be reminded of God's faithfulness to me. He knew when my husband gave it to me that I would need it later in my life to remind me that God Himself controls the events and circumstances of my life, even preparing me to hear him speak to me through the finding of a sand dollar on the beach after a violent storm.
I cried and cried...
...and was comforted.
Within days after taking the shell back home, it developed a hole on the top in the middle, and so I knew in the very depths of my soul that the biopsy would be confirmed as malignant, which it was, and after the diagnosis, through all of my treatments, and ever since, I have worn it with my diamond pendant almost every single day for the past four plus years because wearing the two pendants together reminded me of the beginning of my "motherhood" and the end of raising my children. It reminded me daily of God, my Heavenly Father, who spoke to me from my present circumstances, back through my past and forward into my future, and it was His peace and the knowledge that He was with me that enabled me to move through treatment for cancer.
With the cancer, I lost all of my internal female organs in surgery, and then had six cycles of chemotherapy. Having something tangible to wear and to touch from the beginning of being a mother, and from the end of having children in the house was a daily reminder of God's plan for me BEFORE cancer was even a part of my life, and His speaking. directly to me during my personal storm of cancer through the sand dollar I found on the beach and in my jewelry box.
Now you know why it is important to me to find someone who is willing to do the repair.
Do you think can be repaired? If so, I need to find a goldsmith with artisan skills who recognizes my need to repair it (due to the enormity of the significance of it for me) and who has the skill to do fine delicate work. Can you recommend someone who would be sentimental enough to undertake the difficulty of restoring the pendant for me? Maybe it won't be as difficult as I think, but seeing it in its current condition makes me want to cry. I will try to upload a picture.
Thank you in advance for your recommendations.
I have a 14k yellow gold sand dollar charm/pendant that my husband gave to me when I was pregnant with our first child 42 years ago. Last Friday my three year old granddaughter managed to mangle it with a backwards head butt to my chest while sitting on my lap. She crushed it into my diamond pendant that I received when our son went to college leaving us as empty nesters. The blow took a chunk out of the sand dollar and damaged the bale on the charm.
The pendant is significant to me beyond being a pregnancy gift during my first pregnancy. I was diagnosed with endometrial cancer in the spring a little over four years ago. Shortly before my biopsy, I found a perfect sand dollar after a magnificent, terrifying storm on the beach where I had walked for over 60 years with my family. I had never found one before, and, despite the high, violent surf from the storm, this one was perfect (though not alive!) when I found it while waiting for my diagnosis. I heard the voice of God Himself speak into my soul saying, "Do you see all the carnage here? All of the dead fish and pieces of crabs that have been beaten by the waves and torn to pieces during the violence of this storm? I kept this sand dollar so that amidst all this carnage from the storm so that you would find it. If I can keep this sand dollar in perfect shape during such a storm, I can keep you safe, even if you have to deal with cancer."
At that point, I remembered that I had this pendant in my old jewelry box. I had never worn it because I didn't have a chain that would fit through the bale. I realized that I had kept it for 38 years, never wearing it, because THIS was the moment that I needed to be reminded of God's faithfulness to me. He knew when my husband gave it to me that I would need it later in my life to remind me that God Himself controls the events and circumstances of my life, even preparing me to hear him speak to me through the finding of a sand dollar on the beach after a violent storm.
I cried and cried...
...and was comforted.
Within days after taking the shell back home, it developed a hole on the top in the middle, and so I knew in the very depths of my soul that the biopsy would be confirmed as malignant, which it was, and after the diagnosis, through all of my treatments, and ever since, I have worn it with my diamond pendant almost every single day for the past four plus years because wearing the two pendants together reminded me of the beginning of my "motherhood" and the end of raising my children. It reminded me daily of God, my Heavenly Father, who spoke to me from my present circumstances, back through my past and forward into my future, and it was His peace and the knowledge that He was with me that enabled me to move through treatment for cancer.
With the cancer, I lost all of my internal female organs in surgery, and then had six cycles of chemotherapy. Having something tangible to wear and to touch from the beginning of being a mother, and from the end of having children in the house was a daily reminder of God's plan for me BEFORE cancer was even a part of my life, and His speaking. directly to me during my personal storm of cancer through the sand dollar I found on the beach and in my jewelry box.
Now you know why it is important to me to find someone who is willing to do the repair.
Do you think can be repaired? If so, I need to find a goldsmith with artisan skills who recognizes my need to repair it (due to the enormity of the significance of it for me) and who has the skill to do fine delicate work. Can you recommend someone who would be sentimental enough to undertake the difficulty of restoring the pendant for me? Maybe it won't be as difficult as I think, but seeing it in its current condition makes me want to cry. I will try to upload a picture.
Thank you in advance for your recommendations.
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