MY BRACELET

My great-grandma had a gold bracelet. She died when my grandma was three and eventually my grandma wore it. My grandma passed it to my mom when my mom turned eighteen. My mom died when I was fifteen and I started wearing it sometime after that, although I don't remember exactly when. I quit wearing it for a few years in early adulthood because it was reacting to my body chemistry, lotion, or something by leaving a green mark on my skin. I tried again later and didn't have any problem. I didn't take it off for over twenty years. 

I was reading in bed one night in March and felt my sleeve get caught on the bracelet. Strange, since the bracelet is perfectly smooth. I looked down and discovered it had split. What in the world?! It's lasted over a century, my mom wore it constantly for two decades, I've worn it constantly for more than two decades, and it broke while I was sedentary at the end of the day.

It took a while, but I finally got around to having Sherrie's Jewelry Box look at it. The repair was going to be easy because it was on the seam, which is why it was perfect break, but there was another problem. 

The inside of the bracelet had names engraved in it. A mom's first name, hyphen, her daughter's first and last (maiden) name, from my great-grandma to my mom. The cool thing was that it was hand engraved. The bummer was the engraving had been done right over the seam. I had a choice to make. Leave the original engraving as is, with one name permanently ruined, or have the engraving redone, not by hand and starting just after the seam so the problem couldn't happen again. I chose the latter. I also had the name combinations dropped to make room for more generations, so it's just each woman's first and last name. I also had my own name added, which makes me get a little choked up sometimes. 

Not only have I always had old lady hands with all their wrinkles, but I've also always had man hands that are really wide. (Hmmm ... maybe I have old man hands. Whatever. I don't care. My hands look how they look and do what they need to do.) Because my hands are wide, I never take the bracelet off. It's simply too difficult and painful. However, I haven't put the bracelet on in over twenty years and had forgotten that it's easy to move it that direction. I slipped the bracelet that's been part of my family for over a hundred years back on my wrist today and smiled. I love it.