Every ring has a story; A's YES moment was celebrated with a diamond. A's came from DePrisco Jewelers, Washington St. Boston. http://deprisco.com/
Most diamonds come with appraisals. A, ’s came with blessings. Ms Donna DePrisco reportedly opened her store early to help J settle on a diamond for my daughter A. She assured me "what a good young man J is" as he could listen and learn. Ms DePrisco is as spiritual as she is spirited.
My engineer-student daughter A. may have had allotropes of carbon on her mind last winter when she first steered her boyfriend into DePrisco Jewelers. I think they went to buy a wedding gift for friends, or maybe a new chain for his religious metal. A. and her sisters know the DePrisco Jewelers shop and esteem Ms Donna DePrisco as an astute businesswoman with a musician’s heart. Almost a decade ago, A. was a Cadette Girl Scout helping her sister's Brownie Girl Scout troop on a tour of DePrisco's Jewelers as they completed the Jewelry Badge. The Girl Scouts scheduled a meeting with Boston's gracious Princess of Diamonds. DePrisco Jewelers is The Hub’s hub of diamond craftsmanship, art, and international trade. Ms DePrisco taught the girls the 4 C' plus four: (color carat, clarity, and cut plus certification, cost, care and comfort). For their jewelry craft project, the girls had threaded red white and blue beads onto safety pins creating American flag broaches; Donna and her team graciously accepted them. She embraced the Girl Scout tradition of Swaps - tokens of remembrance shared when Girl Scouts get together; she gave each girl a silver charm bracelet!
My Girl Scout name is Ducky. Donna explained to the girls, “When important days happen in Ducky's life, Ducky’s husband sometimes gives her jewelry". Indeed my wedding ring marks me as a married woman; on my wedding day my life took on new definition as a Catholic wife. I have only taken the ring off for surgery- either to hold the knife or go under the knife. To commemorate one of our wedding anniversaries, my husband gave me a new diamond: "one we could both see". Instead of flowers when our fourth daughter was born, George gave me a ring with five magnificent diamonds. It's true; these tokens are precious traditions of love giving.
The diamond has enduring qualities; to George and me, the the diamond J gave A sealed their betrothal with something of value. A few years ago while visiting the National Archaeological Museum ( Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο) in Athens, amid the cyclads, the mask of Agamemnon, and the Antikythera Ephebe is some woman's diamond jewelry. By tradition, diamonds were thought by ancient Greeks to be tears of the gods. These diadems, earrings, pendants and pins were unearthed from a 1600 - 1500 BC grave of a woman. Even her bones have turned to dust, and all that remains of his woman is her jewelry - yet I know her elegant style.
The word "diamond" comes from the Greek adamas, "I tame" or "I subdue." Greek and Latin writers acknowledge it as the stone of impenetrable hardness; herein lies the etimology of the word adamant.
Thus, no irony is lost on my daughters and me - as we are mesmirized by this stone.
Some Roman writers refer to diamas as “splinters falling from the heavenly sky”. My diamonds remind me of the night sky in Sweden, Maine, or the night sky reflected on kettle pond outside our Cape Cod hide away. My haiku:
Skipped rocks skid on water.
Like diamonds cut from desire,
Soft moonbeams shatter.
Madonna proclaimed: “ I am a material girl in a material world”; A. and I are too. I love the saga of diamonds: billions of years old and formed 100 miles below the earth's mantle, the diamonds were thrust upward in volcanic eruptions, mined in rough stone, then cut and polished. Then our beloveds gave us something ancient and perfect from deep in the earth - as a token of love.
During my long days at the office, my diamonds adorn on my hands. I use my hands to help diagnose my patients, to record our encounters, to soothe the sick, and to communicate my concern. When I entered the field of medicine, my nurse cousin Nancy told me " every patient will know from your touch if your hand wants to be there". My hands are healing hands. And they are adorned by the diamonds that symbolize the love and commitment George has for me - and I have for him. For us, the YES moments have been YES, and yes and yes.
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