My mom surprised me with something incredibly special today...the wedding ring of her mother and my grandmother, Grace (Belliston) Jeppesen (shown above my own)!
My grandmother had a very regal personality. I never saw her looking anything but her best and she always wore a smile. She loved pearls. She decorated a white tree with fake candles every year. She drove a white convertible. She would hum cheerfully throughout the day. When we were younger, she would hide frosted oatmeal cookies in the bottom drawer of the kitchen for the grandkids...where our parents would never expect them to be. She invited me over for a sleepover one weekend and took me to the fabric store to buy any color of yarn I wanted so that I could show her how I had just learned to braid. She warned me not to come back to the car without a candy bar...that was the first time I ever tasted a charleston chew. She owned a daybed and I loved napping on it as the sunlight carried in through the window. I felt her presence near me in a very real way during my mission and knew she was watching me from heaven.
I remember her fondly and today I felt very connected with her when my mother had me close my eyes and placed her mother's wedding ring in my hand. "I want you to have it," she said. I immediately started crying. I have admired my grandmother's ring for a long time. After her passing, my mother would wear it to church and I would ask to try it on all the time. I would imagine it as my wedding ring, and when I was about to become engaged to Ryan I asked if she would hate to part with it...and while she said it was intended for me, she wasn't ready to pass it on, which I understood. I purposefully patterned my wedding ring after hers, having 7 diamonds from each band circle the center diamond. I am humbled, flattered and honored to have such a cherished possession of hers. I loved my grandmother very much and I look forward to remembering her while I wear this precious family heirloom.
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