The entire family was ecstatic with the announcement of my sister Erica’s engagement to her long-term boyfriend Nick. It was even more exciting as our grandma had just moved back to the family home, which meant she could attend the wedding.
Nick’s family was equally supportive of the union with Nick’s mother giving him a family heirloom — a glittering yellow diamond ring — for the engagement.
Erica became extremely busy with all of the wedding preparations, so I offered to run some errands for her. One of my tasks was to take her engagement ring in to the jewellers to have it cleaned. My hesitation at taking responsibility for such an expensive item quickly dissipated when I saw how stressed poor Erica was.
Carefully, I placed it in my handbag. But when I went to retrieve it for the jeweller, it was gone. I frantically scoured my bag, even emptying it all over the counter and I couldn’t find the ring for the life of me!
I ran out of the store in a hysterical panic drove to my apartment and turned it upside down without any luck. In desperation I went in to my work and scoured very inch of my desk, even pulling my desk drawers out and peering into the empty cabinet.
I slumped down in my work chair completely defeated. I had well and truly lost it. The best explanation I could muster was that it probably fell from my handbag when I was retrieving my keys from the same pocket. I burst into tears at the realisation that I had to confess to Erica what had happened.
That evening, I went to Erica’s house for dinner. The whole way there, I rehearsed different ways of breaking it to her. When I arrived, I found Grandma sitting quietly at the kitchen table.
My grandma’s health had been deteriorating the last few months and she was becoming increasingly confused and forgetful. Grandma had developed a habit of misplacing things like putting her purse in the fridge or her phone in a pot plant.
Although she didn’t speak much English and was disoriented most of the time, I always enjoyed Grandma’s company. We shared nice meal while Erica frantically darted around the house chatting excitedly about roses and seating arrangements.
My guilt was eating me up — I had to say something. It took almost an hour before I blurted out, “Look, Erica, I’ve lost your ring”.
Erica went pale and stared at Grandma, then at me.
“Poor thing,” she finally sighed, placing her hand on Grandma’s shoulder. “I guess we better start looking for it,” she smiled weakly.
Erica must have assumed I took the ring out at dinner to return to her and while my back was turned, Grandma hid it. In a split second, I decided to play along with her assumption and even spent the next two hours searching her house in vain for the missing ring.
Fortunately, when Erica broke the news to Nick he was very understanding. Nick even arranged an exact copy to be made to replace the missing ring, in part for Erica but mostly to avoid confessing to his mother what happened to her priceless heirloom.
I am not proud of my dishonesty, especially when Erica tells me that she is convinced that the ring will turn up in her house one day. Although when she looked at Grandma that day in the kitchen and sighed “I guess these things just happen”, I felt I made the right decision… because if she knew I was the one who lost it, I’m sure she we would be singing a different tune!
Picture: Getty Images.
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