The 135-year-old wedding ring my mother wore

The simple gold wedding band in this picture adorns the hand of my mother, Bridget. A few months before she died in October 2015, she gave it to me, saying that she didn’t want it to go astray in the nursing home where she had resided for a few years.

I was uncomfortable taking it as it felt that I was accepting that her life was almost over. She insisted and, ever one to give advice, warned me to take care of it as “it is very old”. The ring, she said, belonged to an unmarried sister of my father’s who had given it to him when they were getting married. I didn’t pay much attention to this information but I promised her I would look after it. I wore the ring from that day onwards and after she died I remembered her story.

Inscription

Some months later I happened to be in Wehrly’s jewellers in Sligo and, remembering my mother’s story, I asked the jeweller if it was possible to tell the age of a ring. He assured me that it was, took a photo of the inscription inside the ring and promised to check the information and let me know.

I had been doing some research on my family tree for a few years and knew that my father’s aunt Margaret Mary, from whom the ring supposedly came, was born on St Stephen’s Day 1880. She died in 1953, not long before I was born. She was the eldest child in her family and her mother, my great-grandmother Margaret, had married in February 1880. Could my mother’s story be true?

Date of manufacture

About 15 minutes later, as I walked back to work, my phone rang. It was the jeweller. “I checked that information and I can tell you the date of manufacture was late 1879 or early 1880,” he told me. My heart soared and I couldn’t stop smiling. My mother’s story was correct: her wedding ring, which I now wore, was 135 years old when she gave it to me. Each time I looked at it on my finger I felt a mixture of sadness and happiness.

I was reassured that my dear mother was clear in her mind right up to her death. Not only did the ring adorn her finger but also that of my great-grandmother, to whom I now feel a stronger thread of connection. As for Margaret Mary, my grand-aunt, I hope she is happy that the ring she inherited from her mother is still cared for and appreciated.

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