Once Upon a Time: With this December Ring

With this December Ring...

Give All You Have to Those You Love

by Rita Thurman Barnes

Those are mine and hubby’s hands with our new weddings rings on and that’s my wedding bouquet from 53 years ago. I still have the bouquet which became my “going away” corsage and I have hubby’s boutonniere as well. The flowers came from Hains Greenhouse and the rings came from a store in Independence, KS and were purchased on a Saturday morning nearly 54 years ago. That’s our marriage license you see our hands and the flowers resting upon.

We married in December - the 7th to be exact – yep, on Pearl Harbor Day. Someone actually asked me many years later how it felt to be married on the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. I told them I was old, but I wasn’t that old. In fact, I wasn’t born till six years later. But in their defense, it was a younger person who asked me, and I don’t mind that kind of question these days anyway. Our rings didn’t cost a fortune. We were young and newly engaged and we didn’t shop around. I just know that when we both looked down into the ring cabinet that day so long ago our eyes landed on the same rings, and we bought them and never looked back.

On my birthday years ago, my sister brought me one of the best presents I ever received. It was my mother’s wedding ring. It was 83 years old at that time and I hadn’t seen it in years. I knew my mother would want me to have it and my sister did for sure– that little circle of silver given to my mom by my dad over eight decades ago when they were young and in love and ready to take on the world. I wouldn’t wear it because I didn’t want to lose it. Her fingers were much smaller than mine and I’d have to wear it on my pinky finger and that just wouldn’t do. So, I take it out every now and then and show it to someone when the moment seems right. And sometimes I just open the box, look at it, and remember how things used to be.

My daddy had to work hard to pay for the ring since everything was hard back then and was about to become even harder with the Depression of 1929. I’m glad he was able to get the ring before times got so much worse. My dad never wore a wedding ring. Men didn’t wear rings as much back then and he was a carpenter anyway.

I actually heard through the grapevine that my daddy may have found my mama’s engagement ring on a job and that he gave it to her after their wedding. But people give from the bounty of their hearts sometimes when it’s all they have to give. They give Christmas gifts in memory of the one who gave His all when He was called upon to do so. We celebrate life in the middle of the darkest days of the year and we give all we have to those we love even if we happen to find it. Merry Christmas to all!