In Token and Pledge

One of the final pre-wedding day errands Boy#1 and Lovely Girl ran was to the jewelry store, to have her engagement and wedding rings soldered together. They invited Husband and me to come along.

The store was one of those high-end establishments the likes of which I've rarely entered. We stepped into an air lock and waited for the outer door to lock behind us before moving through the inner door into a showroom where dazzling displays reflected light everywhere.

I am not a wearer or coveter of expensive jewelry. Every necklace or pin or pair of earrings I own is either is a sentimental hand-me-down or was purchased at Penney's during a 20% off sale. But as Lovely Girl handed her ring boxes to the attendant, I looked down at a necklace in a display case and my eyes widened. It was exquisite--tiny circles of semi-precious stones joined in a silver cascade.

"Wow," I said to Husband, who was standing right behind me. "That's gorgeous." And I teased him just a little. "It would be perfect with my Mother of the Groom dress."

Then I turned back to listen to the jewelry attendant praising the lovely heritage rings our children would be exchanging. That's when I heard Husband talking to the saleswoman.

"She'd like to try on that one," he told the woman. My head jerked up and I realized my guy was talking about me, and about that beautiful necklace. You have to realize that Husband is an accountant. He is a romantic guy, but his most romantic gifts are usually found in the small gesture--the scraping of my iced-over car on a cold winter morning, the cup of flavored coffee with two creams, the hand he offers to help me down a steep staircase.

"So what has she done to deserve that necklace?" the saleswoman teased him. He mumbled something about taking care of his mother for three years ("Then I think she deserves the earrings, too," the saleswoman shot back) but I knew that wasn't the real reason.


The real reason was that in 17 days, we will have been married for 30 years. For every day of those 30 years, he has put what I wanted, what our family needed, ahead of what he wanted or needed. For one final time before Boy#1 took his vows, his father was demonstrating to his son what it means to love and cherish a wife.

The necklace, like the ring he put on my finger 30 years ago, was a token and pledge of his constant faith and abiding love and I wore it to the marriage of our first-born son.