The Ring I Wasn’t Ready to Wear

This Mother’s Day will feel a little different for me.

My Mother’s Mother

When my lovely Nana passed away, she left me her engagement ring. I was 22 at the time – 27 years ago now – and although I was deeply touched, I didn’t quite know what to do with something so precious. The ring felt too grown-up, too important somehow. So I wrapped it carefully and tucked it away in a drawer, where it has stayed ever since.

The Engagement Ring

Every now and then I would come across the ring while looking for something else. I’d open the little box, smile at the sparkle, and think of her. Then I’d close the box again and tell myself “one day”.  This year, I decided that “one day” had finally come.

Nana Gladwin

Nana Gladwin was a home-bird, and she was always busy; she seemed to be endlessly peeling potatoes, and like in the above photo, her sleeves were often rolled from the never ending washing-up! She was incredibly kind, quiet and unassuming. Always putting the needs of others above her own.

My sisters and I loved the half term holidays when we stayed with my grandparents. I still think of Nana when I smell toast, as that was the smell that would so often wake me when we visited.

The simplest activities became joyful adventures and my Nana could turn the most mundane into an afternoon of fun for us. She would send us to the corner shop to return the glass ‘pop bottles’, we’d accompany her to help clean at church, and our most favoured activity was spending endless hours cutting up old Christmas cards and sticking them to paper with a homemade paste of flour and water!

I’Anson Jewellers

My Nana was slim, and her fingers were delicate. Whenever I tried on the ring it wouldn’t budge past my knuckle, so I’d always assumed resizing it would be complicated. But I took it to I’Anson Jewellers here in Harrogate, and they understood that this wasn’t just a piece of jewellery – it was a piece of my memory and would find a way to make it work for me, today.

Wearing the Ring

When I returned to collect the ring, I slipped it onto my finger for the very first time. It fitted perfectly.

I can’t quite explain how that felt. It wasn’t about the gold or the diamonds. It was about my Nana. About the wonderful Nana she was to me, and my sisters, and the loving, steadfast, mother she was to my own Mama. Wearing her ring feels like carrying a small part of that love and warmth with me. I feel very honoured to wear it. It’s a treasure in every sense.

A Special Mother’s Day

This Mother’s Day, instead of leaving her memory tucked away in a drawer, I chose to wear it – and to celebrate her properly. And that has felt very special indeed.